In this episode of Connected Thinking, JR, our Senior Account Director sits down with Kelly Shaw, Head of Marketing at PerfectTed, the UK’s fastest-growing energy drink and hot beverages brand.
With over a decade of experience in the food and drink industry, Kelly has helped scale founder-led businesses through bold and creative strategies. At PerfectTed, she’s driving growth with an earned-first mindset, from headline-grabbing social stunts like their Sabrina Carpenter sighting generating millions of organic views, to building momentum through TikTok Live.
Kelly shares her insights on how challenger brands can deliver high-impact campaigns on limited budgets, the role of employee-generated content in accelerating reach, and her advice for brands looking to engage on TikTok.
You recently staged a ‘Sabrina Carpenter sighting’ to promote your Blueberry Matcha launch. Can you talk us through the idea and how it performed?
This was part of our launch campaign for our new blueberry matcha latte. We were running a campaign which was focused on social media. Within the team I've tried to ingrain a mentality of earned first thinking, how do we do things that get people talking? Things that we don't necessarily need to pay for and then we might amplify it. And what better way than to tap into culture?
We knew that Sabrina Carpenter was going to be in town. We then had a chat with the team and with some of our partners and we thought it would be pretty cool if we could do a stunt here. It was an idea that came from someone in our team and a partner of ours and we decided to stage a stunt where she's seen drinking PerfectTed.
We decided instead to go to a supermarket, which stocks our matcha latte cans, and dress up as Sabrina. We took our operations manager, Andre, who we could pass as her security guards, we went in and took some products off the shelf and filmed it. I dressed up. We had a great wig, great outfit, borrowed some cowboy boots from our brand manager and went into Waitrose. For about half an hour we were filming me and Andre go to the shelf. So we filmed it and then our marketing manager posted on her personal TikTok saying “Oh my God, I've just seen Sabrina Carpenter in Waitrose buying a PerfectTed”.
We had our affiliate community comment on it just to get it going in the algorithm. Before we knew it, it had a million views. The next morning, 1.5 million views on that single post. Then we quite quickly came out and said: ‘Look, we got you. This wasn't Sabrina, this was us’.
That was some advice that I got from the head of marketing at Nice. You want to fool them, but you don't want to fool them forever. Ultimately come out and reveal that it was you and that will then give it a second wind. We managed to generate 2 million views on social. It's our highest performing post to date. Just to give you a bit of a point of comparison, that is a similar level of views that you could get in one week of an out-of-home campaign. It didn't cost a thing, just my time and Andre's time.
You talk a lot about taking on an “earned-first” mindset – How can brands drive growth with limited resources, using such creative stunts and challenger strategies to break through?
Earned-first thinking is definitely one of my mantras. Take the Sabrina Carpenter stunt, that was not an original idea; I’ve learned from people who have done that before us. For us, it’s not just about spending less, it’s about leveraging creativity. We know that we’re not going to be able to outspend Red Bull, not yet at least, so we’re going to have to out-create them.
I also really like the challenge we can give the team, to do something that is good enough, entertaining enough, and interesting enough to generate coverage organically. The byproduct is that we save some money, which is great, but the real objective is setting ourselves apart from all of our competitors.
I think PerfectTed is uniquely positioned to do it because the brand is so strong. A big part of what I believe has driven the brand’s success for as long as it’s been around is the strength of its visuals, its tone of voice, its confidence, and its personality. The founders have done a fantastic job of thinking outside the box, thinking not like a typical food and beverage brand would but like someone in fashion or entertainment, and adopting that media-first mentality.
Recently, as part of our blueberry launch, we hosted an event for our community where we created a giant matcha pouch. There was a small window with tassels and a bell; you rang the bell, and hands popped out to deliver a matcha latte. It was all about shock and surprise. It cost very little but generated loads of UGC and encouraged the team to think creatively.
PerfectTed has built a loyal community that goes beyond the product. How do you keep that momentum going through UGC and day-to-day community engagement?
Community is a really important part of what we do. It can be a bit of a buzzword and is sometimes hard to define, but for us it’s about creating a brand that people feel is theirs, that they have a part to play in its journey and its success, and that they’re brought into it.
We try to bring our community into the brand as much as possible, both in real life and digitally. In real life, events are a huge part of what we do. We host pop-ups with fashion brands, run clubs, and attend coffee festivals, always inviting our community and making sure they get VIP access.
Digitally, we focus on rewarding our community and gathering their insights. On the reward side, UGC is huge. We work with platforms where consumers are rewarded for posting content about a brand like PerfectTed. For example, you could go into Tesco, buy a matcha latte, post a photo on TikTok or Instagram, and we’ll reward you for it. It’s a simple way of giving back while also generating authentic advocacy from real customers.
We also involve our community in decision-making. We’re doing a lot of new product development at the moment, and they’re the first people we ask about new flavours, formats, and variants. We send surveys and are looking to bring members of the community into the office for focus groups, including matcha masterclass sessions.
We also look at every marketing activation and ask how we can bring the community into it. For example, as we launch in Australia in October, can we reach out to customers with an Australian address and invite them to an event? Can we send them an influencer package instead of sending it to an influencer?
EGC feels like part of PerfectTed’s DNA. What’s your secret to getting the team motivated to create content and making sure it stays fun?
I think EGC is incredibly important, and it’s something we do very intentionally. It can be a challenge to get employees to post about their employer, but it’s a big part of our social strategy. We’ve found it accelerates our reach, allowing us to connect with millions of people each month through our employees, and it also gives a platform to leaders like our founders and myself to share content like this.
In terms of how we incentivise it, there are a couple of approaches. The first is leading by example. Our founders post every single day on LinkedIn, and despite how busy they are, they still post. That gives everyone on the team a clear benchmark of what good looks like.
We also incentivise it in a more lighthearted way. We run a fun internal competition and give out a novelty cheque each week to the “LinkedIner of the week.” On Monday mornings, we play music, and Charlotte, our social media and content lead, walks in carrying a cheque bigger than she is. We present it to the winner, do a handshake with the founders, take a formal photo like they’ve won the lottery, and celebrate them.
We also work with partners like Social Tip and are currently running a beta where we provide cash rewards for employees who post about the brand, alongside some internal content training. As a marketing team, we’re very intentional about capturing moments and sharing content quickly. For example, if Steven Bartlett walks into the office, which happens from time to time since we share a space, we take photos and immediately send them to anyone he’s spoken to, knowing they’ll want to share that on LinkedIn.
With TikTok Shop reshaping how people discover and buy, what’s the real opportunity in social commerce, especially for food and drink brands? What have you learned about this channel through the work you’ve done at PerfectTed?
I’m obsessed with TikTok. It’s a powerful marketing tool because it can do both top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel at the same time.
Someone might join one of our TikTok Lives without following us. Within seconds, they understand the brand, often follow, and many will purchase through TikTok Shop before leaving, sometimes in under 20 seconds. You’re effectively covering both the top and bottom of the funnel almost instantly.
We run Lives regularly, our longest was 12 hours as part of our blueberry launch. We’re planning another 12 hour Live for our next campaign because the reach is so strong. During that Live, TikTok sent a push notification across the UK saying PerfectTed was live, which massively increased visibility.
Alongside that, we do a lot of affiliate activity. We send products through TikTok Shop to thousands of affiliates each month, who create shoppable content. During the blueberry campaign, we generated 6 million impressions on TikTok alone, which is comparable to a major out-of-home campaign. Affiliates also help bring the community in, with thousands of people creating content and earning commission.
We also have a brilliant social and content creator, Charlotte, who is currently doing 100 days of matcha. Every day she creates a new matcha latte on TikTok, and people keep coming back to follow the journey, which has been really effective.
We’re also seeing that around 37 percent of people who join our Lives don’t purchase through TikTok Shop but convert elsewhere. They discover the brand on TikTok, then go on to buy in Tesco, through our DTC site, or on Amazon, so it’s driving impact beyond the platform.
You’ve worked closely with founders throughout your career. How has that shaped the way you lead and build a marketing team in a high-growth environment?
I’ve been working in founder-led businesses for the last eight years, which is the vast majority of my career. I’ve always been drawn to more entrepreneurial environments where I can have broader scope and think more commercially.
There’s no one who pushes you like a founder. The founders I’ve been lucky enough to work with really challenge you to be ambitious in your career and to be the best version of yourself, because that’s what they need from their team.
Working directly with founders has also meant I’ve been able to learn from people who are typically much more senior at an earlier stage in my career. I left Wavemaker two years in to join a founder-led business, where I was reporting directly to a CEO with 40 years of experience in marketing across major food and beverage brands. I was exposed to challenges I wouldn’t have encountered for years otherwise.
One of our founders at PerfectTed, Marissa, who leads marketing and brand creative, is phenomenal. She has a real strength in vision and thinking outside the box. For example, when we were planning our blueberry launch campaign, instead of looking externally at what other brands or agencies had done, her instinct was to ask, how can we build this ourselves? She believed we could create the structure, brand it, and bring it to life in-house, then reinvest the savings into content and storytelling. That mindset, combined with a strong belief that we’ll figure it out, really pushes the boundaries of what you think is possible.
I think that’s common across the founders I’ve worked with. The business is their baby. They dedicate everything to it and often make significant personal sacrifices, including financially. That creates a different level of scrutiny when it comes to spend. It’s not about using a budget for the sake of it, but about constantly asking why we’re investing here, what value it creates, and whether it’s the best use of resources compared to other parts of the business.
It raises the bar in terms of accountability and ensures you’re only investing in things that genuinely move the needle.
What emerging trends are you watching closely in the health and wellness space and what brands do you look to for inspiration?
Firstly, it’s important to surround yourself with a team that really has their finger on the pulse. In marketing, when you’re working across such a broad set of areas, it’s difficult to have real depth in everything.
For example, I manage content and design, brand marketing, e-commerce, and digital. That’s quite broad, so I rely on specialists in the team who are closer to culture and platforms like Instagram and TikTok. I stay informed, but they’re the ones truly embedded in it day to day.
You also need to get your inputs right. That’s podcasts, newsletters, and the people you follow. Make sure your feed is showing you what’s current. And then it’s about listening, really listening to your consumers. A lot of it comes down to how you surround yourself with the right people and perspectives.
In terms of inspiration, we’ve been very intentional about looking outside the food and beverage category. That’s not to take anything away from the space, it’s what I’m most passionate about, but if you want to stand out, you have to look to entertainment, fashion, and media. We look at brands like Rhode and ask how we can show up in a similar way to Hailey Bieber. That mindset shapes a lot of what we do. There are also brands within food and beverage that have done this well.
Favourite book or podcast you’d recommend?
I’ll give you a non-marketing one. One of the most valuable books I’ve read is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. The biggest takeaway for me was that everyone has to solve problems in their career, so it’s about being intentional about which problems you want to solve and building your career around that.
Best piece of advice you’ve received?
I received some really good advice this week from our operations manager, Andre, who I mentioned was involved in our Sabrina Carpenter stunt. This week, when he was asked to give advice to a new starter, he said, “Don’t wait to be asked to do something.”
If I reflect on my career, particularly the work I’ve done with founders, what’s really helped me is anticipating needs. Looking at the problems the founders I’m working with are trying to solve, and whether they’ve asked me or not, coming up with solutions or ways to make their lives easier.
I’m definitely going to steal his advice because I think it’s really stayed with me!
