I’ve got to say this — I’ve never been happier to own a smart phone. Thanks to the fine folks at Peace Tea and my trusty iPhone, what started as a day trip with Caity ended with a free Ukulele and a care package from a major brand!

The rules were simple: Take a photo at the Vans Warped Tour. Upload it to Instagram. Tag @peaceicedtea and hashtag the location you attended. Win a free uke! 

Okay — that was all well and good, but I’m not generally one to enter Instagram contests. No, I’m not one of those purists that wishes Instagram was just for photo sharing. I’ve just never gone out of my way to participate in anything like this.

At last year’s Warped Tour, Caity made me try my first Peace Tea. It was “Caddy Shack” -flavored (Tea + Lemonade), and absolutely delicious! Yep… I was sold. 

Fast forward to this year. We grabbed our free drinks from the Peace Tea tent at the Camden, NJ VWT date, saw the sign for the contest, then proceeded to leave the tent. We’d walked probably fifty feet away or so when I turned around, took my phone out and snapped a few photos of the giant Peace Tea trailer settled right in front of one of the stages. After some Snapseed, VSCO, and Mextures were introduced, the winning image was born:

I really have to hand it to Peace Tea here. Not only did they choose my photo as a winner, they actually followed through and sent me a custom-engraved ukulele. And if that wasn’t enough, they exceeded my expectations by adding in a nice little Peace Tea care package that included a “peace” guitar pick and other various promotional products.

My overly-analytical marketing brain is loving what a great marketing stunt this was. I mean, here I am telling you all about how great this product is, right? (PS: It’s actually delicious. Seriously). So do yourselves a favor and go buy some Peace Tea, then head outside and take some photos. You never know when a ukulele might fall into your hands!