---
title: "Missy Maio: VP of Marketing and Global Partnerships, Gong Cha"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/d596f066-6ab9-4596-bdf6-cda6c04012a1
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/franchise-marketing-leader-missy-maio-gong-cha-2729237
category: "Coffee & tea"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Coffee & tea"
topics: ["Technology","Marketing"]
published: 2025-06-27T13:08:01.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T20:31:37.871Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/04342835ab598383944167e0587b7ef93945.jpg
---

# Missy Maio: VP of Marketing and Global Partnerships, Gong Cha

**TL;DR:** Missy Maio, VP of Marketing and Global Partnerships at Gong Cha, focuses on delivering marketing programs that empower franchisees to drive traffic and build loyalty. She highlights key trends shaping 2025, including functional health benefits, hyper-local influencer engagement, and AI-powered personalization.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2025-06-27. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/franchise-marketing-leader-missy-maio-gong-cha-2729237).*

## Story

**Name:** Missy Maio **Role:** Vice President of Marketing and Global Partnerships **Brand:** Gong Cha **Brand Website:**

With hundreds of locations worldwide and a rapidly expanding footprint across the United States, Gong Cha is making its mark as a global bubble tea powerhouse — and franchise marketing is at the heart of that growth. Leading the charge is Missy Maio, who brings a franchise-first mindset to every initiative.

From localized launch support to strategic national partnerships, Maio focuses on delivering marketing programs that empower franchisees to drive traffic, build loyalty and stay aligned with Gong Cha’s premium brand experience — all while keeping the unique needs of each market front and center.

**Missy Maio:** What I love most about franchise marketing is the opportunity to work directly with individual entrepreneurs. Each franchisee brings their own unique perspective, challenges and community knowledge, and I’ve found it incredibly rewarding to support them with tools and strategies that help them succeed on a local level while staying aligned with a national brand. There’s something really energizing about the partnership between brand vision and local execution.

**1851: What do you see as the single most important thing franchise marketing pros can do to impact franchisees’ unit-level economics?**

**Maio:** The biggest impact comes from delivering fully integrated launch support, ensuring franchisees not only have a great offer or campaign, but also the operational playbook to execute it seamlessly. That means aligning marketing with operations, training and supply chain so the entire system is set up to drive sales, manage inventory and train crew effectively. When those elements come together clearly and on time, we’re not just creating awareness — we’re setting up the store to capture sales and drive profitability.

**Maio:** Strategic collaborations with well-known consumer brands continue to be one of the biggest marketing opportunities. When done right, they provide instant credibility, cultural relevance and fresh reasons for consumers to visit and engage. These partnerships can unlock broader awareness and allow franchisees to benefit from national buzz that trickles down to their local storefronts, while also giving us new ways to tell our brand story.

**Maio:** Some of the key trends shaping 2025 include:

- **Functional Health Benefits:** Consumers continue to demand more from what they eat and drink. Positioning products with functional benefits — whether it’s energy, immunity, hydration or focus — is a major growth lever.

- **Hyper-Local Influencer Engagement:** There’s a move away from massive influencer deals toward authentic, community-based creators who can drive traffic where it matters most.

- **AI-Powered Personalization:** From email marketing to app experiences, customers expect smarter, more personalized messages and offers, especially in loyalty and CRM.

**Maio:** We’ll continue to see a sharp decline in the effectiveness of traditional media like TV, radio and print, especially among younger demographics. My bold prediction? The next wave of brand-building will come from real-time, experience-driven content — think user-generated reviews, live shopping and creator-led activations that blend entertainment and commerce. Marketing won’t be something we “see”; it’ll be something we “do,” with consumers actively participating in the storytelling.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- franchise growth (topic)
- marketing strategy (topic)
- Technology (sector)
- Gong cha (company)
- consumer trends (topic)
- brand partnerships (topic)
- Missy Maio (person)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/franchise-marketing-leader-missy-maio-gong-cha-2729237). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/d596f066-6ab9-4596-bdf6-cda6c04012a1).