Instagram Secrets of the Top 20 Kombucha Brands
Last week we posted the annual review of kombucha brands’ Instagram accounts worldwide and listed the top 20 with the most followers.
Here’s a sample set of posts from each of these brands to show what the most popular brands in this industry are doing. We already showed a 3×3 grid from GTs and Humm Kombucha. Here’s a look at the whole list.
GTs Kombucha, Beverley Hills, California
With 228,000 followers and getting on for 2,000 posts, the GTs Instagram account showcases both the product as well as GT’s personality and philosophy. He leads a 10-minute candlelight meditation “to help center your thoughts on positivity and gratitude”. The meditations are tagged #RootedInGratitude, which ties into the ‘gratitude’ branding of their Fall limited edition. These meditations are held in conjunction with @Chopra‘s 868,000 followers. The two IGTV meditation videos in this selection each attracted over 2,500 views and up to 80 positive comments.
Health-Ade Kombucha, Torrance, California
With 156,000 followers and 2,500 posts, these Health-Ade posts are anything but laid-back and meditative. There’s a hard rock soundtrack to some of the short-form videos, and the lady with eye makeup is introduced as “harnessing our inner f*cking power. ” But, hey, who else has a picture of Justin Bieber drinking their product?
Humm Kombucha, Bend, Oregon
With 104,000 followers and just over 1,000 posts, this is the third brand to crack the six-figure number of followers. A couple of their short-form videos feature ASMR-like carbonation soundtracks. They love a risque pun (Un-Fizzing Believable, Holy Sip!). As mentioned last week, this creative video is worth checking out.
Juneshine, San Diego, California
The first of four hard kombucha brands in the top 20 will probably get six-figure followers any day now. We highlighted their use of brand ambassadors back in February 2019, and the selection below features snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg (337,000 followers) and surfer Lex Weinstein (62,000 followers). They also feature artist Joshua Caleb who designed their backcountry-brand cans.
Remedy Drinks, Mordialloc, Victoria, Australia
The international brand brewed in the Land Down Under features pictures of their bottles in heavy rotation. Seasonal food pairings and cocktail recipes for the Aussie Christmas “summer heat” are on offer. There’s a reminder that Remedy is available at @WalMart and on @Amazon in the USA.
Brew Dr. Kombucha, Portland, Oregon
Brew Dr. embrace whimsy. Cacti sprout from cans, cartoon characters toast Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. There’s a fun BTS (behind-the-scenes) insight into how a low-cost animation is filmed. They use simple but effective stop-motion techniques and have a consistent design pallet.
Komvida Organic Kombucha, Badajoz, Spain
The first European brand to break into the top 20 features posts by company founders Nuria and Bea. The selection below highlights popular nutritionists and natural food influencers encouraging us to take up the challenge to #CuidateconKomvida (Take care with Komvida). It helps that spokespeople like “Vegan Gloria” Carrión (top right) have 356,000 followers.
KeVita, Oxnard, California
Their parent company @Pepsi boasts 1.7m followers. I can only imagine the social media team at KeVita must look to the cola guys for ways to boost their 54,600 followers, especially since they’ve posted over 300 times more than the headquarters group.
However, it’s obvious from a quick comparison of the two that they serve very different types of customers–KeVita is more tofu & sprouts than burgers & fries; more crow pose than quarterback:
The main KeVita feed showcases food pairings (Mango Lime salsa with Mango Lime Booch) and boasts of “billions of live probiotics”.
K-Häppy Kombucha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
There’s some powerful percussion on the soundtrack of their short-form videos. They celebrate the “keys to happiness” and encourage people to transform their diet and their life: “Get the popcorn and come see the revolution happen.”
Tao Kombucha, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Various members of the Abegg family who started Tao promote their brand, nutrition and general fitness in and around the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil. The green theme of many posts highlights their #TAOGoGreen sustainability campaign.
Flying Embers, Ventura, California
The second hard kombucha brand in the top 20 promotes itself as the low carb alternative to other alcoholic drinks. While their 245 followers on Twitter are a fraction of the 34,700 here, they did a nice cross-post of Twitter poll results. The picture of the Google autocomplete suggestions to the search “Is Flying Embers…” is priceless. The sample below shows how they’ve integrated their brand typeface and graphics into Instagram.
Boochcraft, San Diego, California
This hard kombucha brand celebrates the farms where the apples and grapes for their Heirloom flavors are sourced. They go beyond organic and sustainability, announcing “The future is regenerative farming, and it requires supporting farmers in their transition to regenerative practices.” They are Fair Trade Certified and support 1% for the Planet. Other posts give a shout-out to graphic design partners such as @littlehouseink.
Mavili Kapi, Istanbul, Turkey
This brand slipped under the radar — I had intended to list only ‘pure-play’ kombucha companies in the Top 20, and missed the fact that they also have a line of hair-care products and essential oils. However, scrolling back on Instagram tracks their evolution over the past three years and 600 posts, showing they started out with kombucha before diversifying.
Happy Kombucha Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
This hard kombucha brand highlights cocktail mixes. The company, founded in Bali by husband and wife team Lau and Camilo, has a mission to counter climate change by planting one billion trees in the next 30 years. They actively recruit influencers like @carolinacruzosorio (6.2 million followers) and @toyamontoya (420,000 followers) to help promote the mission and the brand.
Kómbu Chá Chá, Temuco, Chile
Kómbu Chá Chá extends the distinctive graphics on their label across their Instagram posts. Simple but effective stop-motion animation conveys a buoyant sense of fun — missing only a soundtrack (perhaps Enrique Jorrín’s violin?) to add some bounce to the ‘Chá Chá’ theme.
Lenny Boy Brewing Co, Charlotte, North Carolina
The photogenic taproom features in heavy rotation on this Instagram feed. They announced their strawberry limeade flavor was voted a customer favorite on a Instagram Story poll. Other posts feature their brewery, and Friday night comedy shows.
Biozen Kombucha, Curitiba, Brazil
Biozen is obviously big fans of the Cool Hand ‘Booch school of product photography that we highlighted as an industry-standard two years ago. However, it works for them — some posts gather thousands of likes and they average a few hundred with plenty of comments.
Kombucha Town, Bellingham, Washington
This Pacific Northwest company mixes it up with pictures of the backwoods, their production facility, and images of their new live seltzer line. They seem to favor pictures ‘everyday folks’ over influencers, although @kyliejenner (208 million followers) puts in is namechecked via @socialstance.
Clearly Kombucha, Fairfield, California
For an account with 27,400 followers, it’s surprising to see how few of this brand’s posts attract more than 100 likes. As we mentioned last week, something happened last year when the number of posts was suddenly reduced from 2,000 to 181. It’ll be interesting to see how 2021 turns out for this company located off Interstate 80 midway between San Francisco and Sacramento.
Valley Isle Kombucha, Lahaina, Hawaii
Every post from Hawaii’s Valley Isle is a music video in its own right, with the tagline “The Taste You’ve Been Searching For!” overdubbed with a wide variety of creative, original music. A level above the usual static pictures, this Instagram educates as it entertains, frequently racking up 1-2,000 views with the one shown on the top left side below attracting 12,700.
Disclaimer
The content of this article is accurate to the best of our knowledge and is presented for general informational purposes only. The opinions are those of the editor. Please send corrections or questions to ian@boochnews.com. Comments are welcome.
