To connect Canadians with Fuze Iced Tea, parent company Coca-Cola Canada is launching the largest digital sampling campaign in its history.

Coca-Cola recently unveiled its 5-SKU lineup of Fuze Iced Tea, a newly branded product that was launched after the company said it would no longer produce or bottle iced tea under third-party owned trademarks. Instead, it is producing under the Fuze brand, rather than Nestea, which is now manufactured, marketed, sold, distributed and merchandized in Canada, by Keurig Dr Pepper.

Earlier this year, Fuze promised it would be using a recipe to “ensure Canadians continue to enjoy that iconic iced tea flavour they grew up with” and emphasized the “new name, same taste” that consumers have enjoyed for decades.

“To reach iced tea fans across Canada we took a full 360 approach, with a mix of channels to connect with consumers throughout their day and across platforms,” says Jacques Blanchet, director of integrated marketing for Coca-Cola Canada. “A combination of paid and earned tactics and creating opportunities to engage consumers online and in-person was important to drive trial brand awareness at launch.”

The tactics span social, OOH, linear TV, OLV, experiential, influencer partnerships, PR, shopper marketing, food service on premise sampling, e-commerce and DTC sampling partnerships with meal-kit and delivery services.

Coca-Cola Canada is sampling direct to consumers through strategic partnerships with grocery delivery, meal kit and snack-box subscription services and through in-app digital sampling.

Its food service on-premises partnerships include serving Fuze samples at restaurant-partner locations and digital sampling will also be available through apps, and the brand’s “Fuze Iced Tea Flavour Fleet” will deliver two million free product samples on its 2025 coast-to-coast trip.

In February, the fleet travelled by ice canoe, snowmobile, bike, sea plane and ice kites to surprise Canadians with freebies at iconic locations from Peggy’s Cove to Tofino.

As Blanchet tells strategy, in addition to DTC and food-service team-ups, retail media, point of sale and shopper marketing are important channels for the brand to build awareness and encourage trial.

“In retail, we have media network integrations, in-store displays, promotional signage and digital integrations that focus on the Fuze Iced Tea flavour to drive purchase intent and create a seamless shopping journey,” Blanchet says.

Fuze’s recent “Great Flavour Run” campaign, created by WPP Open X and led by VML Canada with buy support from EssenceMediacom, leaned into the nostalgia consumers have for the flavour.

Coca-Cola admitted in its February earnings call that the ready-to-drink tea market “doesn’t always get a lot of attention,” but said its numbers show the category to be fast growing.

In January, competitor Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), issued a release to dispel confusion over iced tea branding in Canada. The company promised that Nestea will return in the summer of 2025.