ZUS Coffee taps into K-pop fanbase with TREASURE’s HYUNHAYO

ZUS Coffee has turned months of fan speculation into a brand ambassadorship, naming HYUNHAYO, the subunit of K-pop group TREASURE, as its latest ambassadors.

The Malaysian coffee chain announced the partnership on Instagram, marking what appears to be its first K-pop collaboration. HYUNHAYO comprises TREASURE members Hyunsuk, Haruto and Yoshi.

The reveal began with a teaser video showing the trio’s silhouettes approaching a ZUS Coffee outlet, followed by an announcement promising more collaborations to come, from the members’ everyday coffee runs to other joint activities. The post has since garnered more than 45,000 likes.

Don’t miss: 'Let's just start', ZUS Coffee CEO on growth without a perfect playbook

The partnership follows a series of interactions between the trio and the brand that fuelled calls from fans for an official collaboration.

Earlier this year, the three members visited ZUS Coffee’s Pasar Seni outlet in Kuala Lumpur during TREASURE’s Asia tour. Haruto also offered to treat fans to free ZUS Coffee drinks if the group won a music show with its comeback, sharing a voucher code for fans in Southeast Asia to redeem a drink.

Fans subsequently urged ZUS Coffee to appoint the trio, with the brand acknowledging the group on X before the official announcement.

In its announcement, ZUS Coffee also highlighted its coconut series as the members’ favourite. Based on the accounts tagged in the post, the ambassadorship appears to span Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei.

The move follows a similar build-up to ZUS Coffee’s appointment of Malaysian singer Siti Nurhaliza as a brand ambassador. In 2025, the brand put up a billboard declaring “ZUS Coffee is Siti’s favourite” beside her Appeton advertisement, prompting speculation before a silhouette teaser preceded the official announcement in July. Fans joined in on the guessing game, with some riffing on the brand’s tagline to coin “NecesSITI”.

Both campaigns show how ZUS Coffee has used teasers and audience speculation to build anticipation around its ambassador announcements, allowing conversations to gather momentum before revealing the names behind them.

Celebrity ambassadorships remain a go-to for brands looking to scale. Industry players previously told A+M that celebrities offer broad appeal and iconic status that can help a brand stand out, and that their international presence suits regional launches, while mega-influencers connect with specific online communities. For ZUS Coffee, which is expanding across Southeast Asia, a trio with fans in several of its markets gives it another way into those communities.

Related articles:
Dato' Sri Siti Nurhaliza re-records 'Bukan cinta biasa' with a ZUS twist
ZUS Coffee goes beyond the brew with ZUS Mart
Still a work in progress? ZUS Coffee made it collectible