Tetley Infusions
Off to a Good Start (SILVER)
Client Credits: Tetley Canada
TATA Global Beverages (Tetley Canada Inc.)
President – Stephen Rice
Director of Marketing – Michelle Faris
Brand Manager – Aleem Visram
Agency Credits: john st.
Creative Directors – Angus Tucker, Stephen Jurisic
Associate Creative Directors – Chris Hirsch, Nellie Kim
Art Director – Marcella Coad
Writer – Chris Booth
Agency Producer – Dale Giffen
Account Service – Rena Bast
Production House – Soft Citizen
Director – Brian Aldrich
Line Producer – Tony Diimarco
DOP – Marc Laliberte-Else
Editorial – Brian Williams, PosterBoy
Audio House – Vapor Music
Audio Director – Joey Serlin
PRINT
Creative Directors – Angus Tucker, Stephen Jurisic
Associate Creative Directors – Chris Hirsch, Nellie Kim
Art Director – Marcella Coad
Writer – Chris Booth
Agency Producer – Marietta Sterman
Account Service – Rena Bast
Agency – john st.
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 8. Classic Rivalries.
Crossover Note 11. The Eureka Insight.
Crossover Note 16. When a campaign stumbles.
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 2009 – September 2010 |
| Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: | May 31 2010 |
| Base Period as a Benchmark: | October 2008 – September 2009 |
Section II — SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment
Tetley has launched many new products over the last decade: Green tea, Red Tea, and numerous new herbal varieties, but Tetley Infusions was something different altogether.
For one, it wasn’t a hot tea. Infusions are a single serve tea-based drink mix that you add to water. And secondly, it was going up against a Goliath called Crystal Light. [Crossover Note 8] CL had a strangle hold on the single serve iced tea drink mix category with over 60% share and a consistent and intimidating media spend (more than $5.5 million over the years ’06 and ’09) (source: Nielsen).
For Tetley to elbow its way to the table, they would need an idea that could steal share from this well-entrenched competitor. And they needed to do it right because they’d tried once before.
Tetley Infusions was initially launched in Spring 2009 as a liquid drink mix made with real brewed tea and no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours, or preservatives (unlike powdered Crystal Light). At the end of the $1.1 million campaign – a straightforward message about the natural and liquid points of difference – Tetley Infusions had gained just a 4% dollar share of single serve iced tea drink mixes (source: Nielsen). This was not acceptable for TATA’s (Tetley’s parent company) new product hurdles and not sustainable for maintaining distribution in the beverage category. [Crossover Note 16]
We needed to make a bigger splash. Or the brand would be shelved.
b) Resulting Business Objectives
We needed to achieve a 10% dollar volume share of single serve iced tea drink mixes by Sept 2010. Otherwise, we would not have enough critical mass for customers to keep us on shelf, and support from global headquarters would dry up.
c) Annual Media Budget
$1 – $2 million
d) Geographic Area
Canada national excluding Quebec
Section III — STRATEGIC THINKING
a) Analysis and Insight
We were on the hunt for an insight that would be powerful enough to make the powdered drink mix user stop and reconsider how to flavour her water. (And reconsider her “go-to” option of Crystal Light).
Our starting point was our proprietary values-based segmentation study that identified the bulls-eye target as the aptly named “All About Me.” This woman loves a good short cut, is highly image conscious, and is committed to cultivating her personal brand – that means frequent retail therapy, a killer social life, and staying on trend and in shape. Her food and beverage repertoire is filled with low cal products that keep her svelte and have ‘health light’ benefits to help her rationalize the choice.
Crystal Light is nestled close to this woman’s heart with its stylish/weight-management positioning. CL was the first to market and set the positioning for the category as a whole – other players like Nestea and Lipton were essentially me-too products whose strategy was to ride Crystal Light’s coattails.
And Crystal Light was riding high. Quantitative research told us that their “Water Need Not Be Boring” equity ticks off the box on the number-one driver for consumers – the desire to add flavour to water which is otherwise not all that appealing. To add to the challenge, Crystal Light layered in additional messaging that focused on the number-two driver as determined by the same study – hydration. The sobering reality was this:
1. Crystal Light already owned the primary and secondary drink mix drivers
2. This woman ultimately makes choices based on how it impacts her image – how she is seen from the outside trumps everything else (and CL’s image ratings were excellent)
3. For the All About Me target, adding artificially sweetened powder daily to her water was perceived as perfectly acceptable and even a little glam with its exotic flavours and upbeat creative. In fact, a consumer panel told us that over half of the category users were buying a pack a week.
It was almost as if women were addicted to Crystal Light. Which got us to thinking: Hmmm, little sticks of artificial substances that women consume daily while turning a blind eye to the health risks? This sounded like cigarettes, or worse.
And so the thought was born. [Crossover Note 11]
We would draw a provocative parallel between the addictive qualities of Crystal Light and the addictive qualities of other “not-so-good-for-you” substances. And in so doing, we would get our target to think a bit more about what she was putting into her body.
And when she made that comparison, our all-natural Tetley Infusions product would beat out the artificial nature of Crystal Light.
b) Communication Strategy
We called the campaign “Break the Habit” – a deliberate play on the old anti-smoking ads from the 80s, and an unsubtle allusion to even more unhealthy hard core vices.
While risky, we felt that if the idea was brought to life in a funny tongue-in-cheek way, our target would not only get the joke, but get the message behind it.
Section IV — KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS
a)Media Used
The campaign ran from May 31st to September 30th, 2010 and consisted of:
– a 30 second TV buy across network and specialty channels
– Consumer print in women’s interest magazines with a full page plus a horizontal half page spread
b)Creative Discussion
The TV used sobering confessions from former “powder addicts” talking about how addicted they were to unhealthy powders before breaking the habit and switching to a healthier lifestyle choice, Tetley Infusions. [Crossover Note 25]
In print, we used the iconography of the artificially powdered stick (a CL look alike) and likened it to a cigarette. The print mimicked the iconic “break the habit” print ads from the 70s that featured someone stubbing out a cigarette butt with their shoe, or a cigarette butt stubbed out in an ashtray.
The message was supported in both media with a side-by-side demo that showed the material benefits of Infusions versus an artificially sweetened powder. Dramatizing the moment that both products go in the water served to expose the unappealing reality that the competition’s campaigns would never reveal.
c)Media Discussion
The media plan was focused on the two media that had the highest fashion/image quotient:
• TV is the competitive battleground in this category. It also allowed the drama of the “confessions” to unfold.
• Print is her go-to reference for trends and image and the medium is perfectly suited to the iconic visuals that complemented the “break the habit” message.
Section V — BUSINESS RESULTS
a) Sales/Share Results
At the end of the campaign (Sept 2010) Tetley Infusions had achieved a 14% dollar volume share of the single-serve iced tea drink mix category*, exceeding the goal by 4 percentage points (source: Nielsen).
*Please note: The dollar volume data available to the client is full year data running Oct 2008 to Sept 2009 and compared versus Oct 2009 to Sept 2010. This time frame does isolate the impact of the Break the Habit campaign. While the campaign did not run all year, it was the only support for Infusions and there are no other contributing factors.
Additional data supports the efficacy of the campaign in delivering business results:
• Shipments (as tracked by client) were up 60% over the spring/summer time frame during which the campaign ran.
• 62% of the gains came from consumers switching from other single serve options. Within that, Tetley Infusions sourced 41% from non-iced tea single serve drink mixes (source: Nielsen). (This indicates that the insight was indeed powerful enough to overcome any potential disadvantage that having all tea-based flavours might play relative to Crystal Light that has a larger variety of options.)
b) Consumption/ Usage Results
c) Other Pertinent Results
d) Return on Investment
Section VI — CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS
a)General Discussion
Millward Brown quantitative research of the TV creative foreshadowed the in-market results: the work exceeded norms on relevance, distinction and credibility among category users. Top-two-box purchase intent was significantly above norm (62 versus a norm of 40).
Tetley Infusions are only available in Canada so there is no control market against which to compare. With respect to mitigating factors, there were no changes to the marketing mix in the case period other than the introduction of the new creative. In fact, fewer marketing mix elements (PR, radio) were used in the re-launch than in the original launch.
b)Excluding Other Factors
Spending Levels: Media spend for 2009 was $1 million and 2010 spend was $1.1 million. The same sampling strategy and in store support was repeated in 2010.
Pricing: No pricing action was taken.
Distribution Changes: The Average AC distribution from 2009 to 2010 remained relatively flat. No new geographies or major accounts were added
Unusual Promotional Activity: No promotional activity unusual to the category was employed. Infusions were line priced with Crystal Light.
Other Potential Causes: No other potential causes to be cited.