HOW WE GENERATED 480K VIEWS FOR A LOCAL BUBBLE TEA SHOP

The Brief

Dr. Tea is a family-owned bubble tea shop in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood. For Valentine's Day 2023, they wanted to boost brand awareness and drive foot traffic with a themed campaign. The Stoop was brought on to build and execute an influencer campaign around the hashtag #LoveIsBrewing.

The goal was simple: get Dr. Tea in front of as many local eyeballs as possible during one of the busiest restaurant weekends of the year — and turn views into visits.

Creator Strategy

We sourced and managed two influencers — Emily Harrigan and Mike DeSabato — for a 3-hour content shoot at Dr. Tea's location (736 Bellefonte St, Pittsburgh). Each creator received a detailed brief with clothing requirements, posting schedule, and deliverables:

• Collaborative reels — Native-feeling video content shot on-site with Dr. Tea's drinks and ambiance front and center
• Story posts — Multiple touchpoints across Instagram Stories timed around Valentine's Day for sustained visibility
• Likeness rights — Full usage rights so Dr. Tea could repurpose creator content across their own channels

Both creators were selected for their authentic connections to Pittsburgh's food scene — not just follower count. Local credibility was the priority.

Campaign Execution

The campaign ran February 4 through March 4, 2023. Here's how the timeline broke down:

• February 4 — Content shoot at Dr. Tea's Shadyside location. Three hours of directed photography and video
• February 9 — Reels published by both creators, tagged @drteapgh with #LoveIsBrewing
• February 11, 14, 17 — Story posts rolled out in three waves, timed around Valentine's Day for maximum relevance

All content tagged @drteapgh with the #LoveIsBrewing hashtag. The staggered posting schedule kept Dr. Tea visible across the entire Valentine's week — not just on the day itself.

The Results

A $4 CPM is exceptional for a local food business — the industry average for influencer campaigns sits between $20–$50 CPM. The $2 CPC meant every click to Dr. Tea's profile or menu cost less than the price of a boba topping.

The 166 new followers represent an ongoing audience asset — people who will see Dr. Tea's organic content long after the campaign ended.

Key Takeaways

• Local influencers with authentic connections to the neighborhood outperform follower count. Emily and Mike's credibility in Pittsburgh's food scene gave the content built-in trust that a bigger creator couldn't replicate
• Valentine's Day timing created natural urgency. People were already looking for date spots — the campaign put Dr. Tea in front of them at the exact right moment
• The collaborative reel format drove the strongest engagement. Multi-creator content feels more dynamic and earns more shares than solo posts
• $4 CPM is exceptional for a local food business. Industry average is $20–$50. Strategic creator selection and timing made every dollar work 5–10x harder
• Professional creative direction during the shoot makes the difference. The gap between content that performs and content that doesn't often comes down to what happens on set, not in the edit