Tetley Herbal Teas

Events, Seasonal and Short-Term (SILVER)

Client Credits: Tetley Canada
TATA Global Beverages (Tetley Canada Inc.)
President – Stephen Rice
Director of Marketing – Kathy Grant-Munoz
Brand Manager – Sarah Molloy

Agency Credits: john st.
Advertising Agency – john st.
Creative Director – Stephen Jurisic
Associated Creative Directors – Chris Hirsch, Nellie Kim
Art Director – Patrick Shing
Copywriter – Paul Constantakis
Agency Producer – Dale Giffen
Account Service – Rena Bast, Joelle Woodruff
Production House – Sons and Daughters
Director – Mark Zibert
DOP – Pete Sweeney
Audio House – Vapor Music
Audio Director – Joey Serlin
Audio Engineer – Julian Rudd
Edit House – PosterBoy
Editor – Brian Williams
DIGITAL
Creative Directors – Angus Tucker, Stephen Jurisic
Art Director – Patrick Shing
Agency Producer – Cas Binnington
Agency Digital Planner – Zoe Holman, Tammy Chiasson
Account Service – Rena Bast, Joelle Woodruff
Web Developer – Oddly

Crossover Notes:
Crossover Notes: All winning cases contain lessons that cross over from one case to another. David Rutherford has been identifying these as Crossover Notes since CASSIES 1997. The full set for CASSIES 2012 can be downloaded from the Case Library section at www.cassies.ca

Crossover Note 11. The Eureka Insight.
Crossover Note 12. Changing the Goalposts.
Crossover Note 20. Emotional versus Rational.
Crossover Note 25. Brand Linkage (when should the brand name appear).

To see creative, click on the links that are embedded in the case.

Section I — BASIC INFORMATION

Business Results Period (Consecutive Months):	October 2010 – March 2011
Start of Advertising/Communication Effort:	Sept 27 2010
Base Period as a Benchmark:	October 2009 – March 2010

Section II — SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment
When the shift toward tea culture started in Canada around 2000, Tetley’s mission was to systematically carve out leadership in every segment of hot tea. That led to years of successfully investing in Black Tea, Green Tea, Red Tea and even new products like Tetley Infusions. But the one cup left unturned was Herbal Tea and as a result, players like Celestial Seasonings had a significant share lead.

The herbal tea category was on the decline at a rate of 2% per year which is sizable for a $30MM segment (source: Nielsen). 70% of the losses were due to buyers leaving the category and it seemed herbals lacked relevance relative to other varieties of tea. Maybe not too surprising for a category where the top selling variety, Camomile, is supposed to put you to sleep.

Tetley could no longer ignore the declines. In 2008, they introduced new packaging to be more compelling at shelf. As would be expected in packaged goods, the initiative produced an uptick in volume. But it wasn’t enough to close the gap with Celestial Seasonings and Tetley lagged their 19% share by 2 points (source: Nielsen).

Celestial had held the #1 position for at least four years and it was clear that we needed more than a facelift to shed our underdog status – Tetley Herbals needed advertising to do some heavy lifting.

b) Resulting Business Objectives
Hot tea is seasonal by nature with a typical ‘on’ period of October thru March. The objective was to take over the #1 position in tonnage volume by the end of the hot tea season (October 2010 to March 2011).

c) Annual Media Budget
$1 – $2 million

d) Geographic Area
Canada, national excluding Quebec

Section III — STRATEGIC THINKING
a) Analysis and Insight
Herbal teas are therapeutic blends with strong emotional associations. Consumers described the ideal herbal experience as relaxing, calming, comforting, cleansing and even uplifting. We understood this but what we didn’t understand was how she was actually making her purchase decision. Through qualitative research, we uncovered something surprising.

Women approached herbal teas with a need state first – i.e. I want to feel calm, soothed, uplifted etc. But the category approached her by ingredient or flavour first – peppermint, camomile, passionflower.

As a result, consumers were left to guess which ingredient would help meet her need state. In response, Tetley revised their herbal tea packaging [Crossover Note 12] to call out her need state first and remove the guesswork for her. (e.g. Camomile was renamed Dream, Peppermint was renamed Revive.)

That was 2008. By 2010 the impact at shelf had reached a plateau and we were looking for a creative insight that would maximize the mileage of our product insight about emotion trumping the ingredient story. [Crossover Note 20] And we finally had a budget to make some news about it.

Oddly, the herbal tea segment – which should be highly emotional and sensory with its tantalizing aromas, delicious flavours and beautiful colours – was actually quite stale and dusty in consumers’ minds. The baggage, largely driven by Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepytime bear, left consumers with an uninspiring picture: the herbal tea occasion was a bastion of lonely introspection, on a couch, wearing a housecoat, book in hand, drizzle on the windows. Sleepy, indeed.

Enter Tetley Colour Therapy. [Crossover Note 11]

Colour has a built-in intuitive emotional code. Or, as Oscar Wilde said, “Mere colour…can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.” We often use colour to describe our emotions – I feel green with envy, I saw red, I feel blue – and we thought we could use colour to describe the need states women have when buying herbal tea. Colour is also beautiful, modern, vibrant and stylish which would make us stand out in a segment that was mostly seen as ‘sleepy’. We also thought it would be a great way to get our consumer to explore the Tetley Herbal line up.

b) Communication Strategy
The job of Colour Therapy was to reassure our consumer that whether she was feeling happy or sad or confused or frustrated, Tetley had a colour to suit her every mood.

With many teas in Tetley’s herbal range, we wanted to show as many mood states as possible in the campaign, and how Tetley had a colour to match every one of them.

The approach was to have the base creative (TV, pre-roll, online ad units) communicate the “colour equals mood” idea and then supplement it with executions across different channels that spoke to her in a moment where she would be craving some Colour Therapy (e.g. in a crowded subway car, or on a slushy day in February).

Everything would drive to a digital hub where she could explore both what she was feeling (and get a Colour Therapy prescription) and what the rest of Canada was feeling (through a real-time map that visualized Colour Therapy ‘prescriptions’ based on a social media feed).

Section IV — KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS
a)Media Used
• Three :15 second TV spots running on specialty channels
• :10 second TV Billboards
• standard online ad units
• pre-roll video ad units
• a microsite and facebook page
• Toronto Transit subway car takeover and Metro Vancouver subway posters

b)Creative Discussion
The driving strategy was Moody Media – making our message especially relevant by intersecting with this woman in places and spaces where she would be feeling different moods, and therefore, the need for Colour Therapy.

:15 TV focused on the moods we’ve all felt at certain times (nerves on a big day like a wedding, the warm feeling you get being with good friends, the frustration of dealing with office politicking). Each was given the appropriate therapeutic colour. [Crossover Note 25]

TV Billboards were even more pointed – connecting with consumers by sharing an observation about the feeling of the programming they were watching and offering up the right colour to complement it. For example, Reality TV goes well with Yellow (Cleanse). Online Ads and Pre Roll did the same – Home Reno shows go well with Turquoise (Calm).

We went even further with transit – with executions tied to the feelings our target would be experiencing on the subway itself. E.g. Missing your stop goes well with purple (clarity), Uncovered sneezes go well with yellow (Cleanse).

The website went even deeper. tetleycolourtherapy.com was an immersive experience where the target could explore not only her emotions (and the colours that matched them) but also the emotions that other Canadians were experiencing. This was via a real-time stream of cross-country Facebook and Twitter statuses assigned Tetley Herbal colours based on the emotional content of the tweet or post. (For example, I’m bummed, it’s Monday @Sweeva in Edmonton got a Revive prescription from Tetley)

c)Media Discussion
A complex buy was negotiated to allow for multiple executions tailored to different programming content that would suit the mood we were supporting. We opted for units of a shorter length so that we could run more of them: there were 3 :15 TV ads, 8 :10 TV billboards, 8 online ads, and 12 different transit executions.

So, in any given day, whether you were schlepping it on the subway, wiping back a tear while watching a Rom Com, or indulging in the latest gossip online, you would be prescribed the colour of Herbal Tea was right for you at that exact moment.

Section V — BUSINESS RESULTS
a) Sales/Share Results
By the end of the campaign, Tetley achieved the goal of becoming #1 in tonnage volume. That represented 17% growth vs. Celestial Seasonings 5% growth (source: Nielsen).

For an investment of $2.4MM, Tetley earned $4.2MM in revenue resulting in a ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) factor of 1.7 which well exceeded TATA’s global benchmarks. Says Tetley’s hot tea Brand Manager, Sarah Molloy, “The Colour Therapy campaign brought a new perspective that excited our retail customers – the creative received a standing ovation! – and it resulted in profitable growth.”

Engagement measures for the microsite bounce rate and online ad click-through exceeded industry averages. Time spent on the microsite was over 4 minutes.

b) Consumption/ Usage Results

c) Other Pertinent Results

d) Return on Investment

Section VI — CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS
a)General Discussion
General Discussion: The tonnage volume by month increased 17% in the year of the campaign as compared to 5% growth before the campaign was launched (see “Hot Tea Season Volume Comparison” chart).

In the weeks that the campaign took a hiatus, tonnage volume went down 2.5% and when the campaign went back on air we saw an increase of 17% demonstrating a sensitivity to support (see “Impact of Flighting on Volume” chart).

b)Excluding Other Factors
Spending Levels: While Tetley had the lead in herbal tea share of voice for 2010, the level of spend ($1.46MM investment in an integrated campaign) is on par with efforts across tea segments by both Tetley and other major players like Lipton. The spend level is considered moderate by packaged goods standards, particularly in this seasonal time frame crowded with Back to School and Holiday messaging from heavy spenders in retail all talking to the same female target.

Pricing: The increase in percent sold on deal was identical for both Tetley and the primary competitor, maintaining an even playing field versus year prior.

Distribution Changes: No new regions or accounts were added.

Unusual Promotional Activity: No promotional activity unusual to the category or year ago was employed.

Other Potential Causes: No new product was offered in the range of herbal tea flavours during the advertising time frame.