Tetley is investing £10m in an integrated and shopper marketing campaign to change consumers’ attitudes to tea, with a particular focus on the younger demographics.

The plans will include mobile apps to drive people to the tea aisle. It is likely Tetley will also deploy some other high tech solutions, such as the holographic Gaffer display currently being used in cash-and-carry outlets.

Andrew Pearl, Director of Shopper and Customer Marketing for the tea brand, says: “Shopper engagement is the biggest driver of growth, so our 2016 programme will target shoppers at each stage of the shopper journey from creating initial desire to engagement at fixture and selection and purchase.”

A new television ad for Tetley’s will break on January 8th, reflecting the new ad campaign positioning, “It Starts With Tea”. The ad will run for eight weeks until March and will be repeated in April.

It celebrates the best of Britain from 1837 – the year the Tetley brothers first set up their business in Yorkshire – to today by showing brand characters Gaffer and the team taking a well-earned tea break and peering into Britain’s past to see British heroes like Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, legendary British Rock stars and sporting giants celebrating with tea.

The new ‘It Starts With Tea’ positioning will be rolled out in print, digital and social media as well as in store and in-depot. PR activity will include the publication of exclusive research into the nation’s current attitudes to Britishness.

Pearl says that in store new high impact branded displays will pop up at strategic retail locations across the UK, while Tetley’s new pack designs will appear across the range.

Clearer signposting, education materials and fresh new ways to present the tea category are all under review and will be executed in the coming year.

Pearl observes: “New shopper research has helped us identify the behavioural traits and tastes of different types of shopper by retail channel and we are using this to refine our category management advice and the way in which we engage with shoppers.”

Mobile and social media is particularly effective at reaching younger audiences; Tetley will be leveraging its position as the number 1 tea brand on social media during 2016, he adds.

“We are expanding our marketing to incorporate mobile apps that drive shoppers to the tea fixture and reward them for purchase and tailored promotions linked to behaviour in-store.”

Tetley is the largest tea company in the UK and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages, the second largest manufacturer of tea in the world after Unilever.

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UK tea brand Tetley has introduced an attention-grabbing holographic version of brand character Gaffer, who is appearing in selected Cash & Carry and wholesalers.

Tetley’s new Virtual Gaffer will be sited in selected cash & carry outlets initially, but the company is planning to deploy them in supermarkets in the future. The new assistant uses the latest in technology to attract buyers and point them to the offers to be found in the tea aisle.

The animated display unit has a footprint of just 50cm2 which makes it suitable to place in a variety of locations; but, at 1.5m, with Gaffer’s animation accounting for nearly half of this, it has high impact.

Andrew Pearl, director of customer and shopper marketing for Tetley, says: “The development is part of our programme to create a sense of theatre at point of purchase and stimulate interest in tea. It’s a really engaging promotional tool – an in-built sensor tells Gaffer when he is on his own so he can call out to passers-by to get them to come over and look at the current tea offers he has on his iPad. A number of different scripts have been developed for him and we can manage these remotely to ensure that he is as up to the minute as possible.”

Pearl adds that the technology “has been proven to increase unit sales by 75% and dwell times by 50%, so when you add to this the appeal and recognition that Gaffer has, you get a powerful marketing tool.”

The technology for the Gaffer Virtual Assistant has been developed by customer journey specialist Tensator Group and the graphics by Tetley’s ad agency Creature.

Tensator group marketing manager Rebecca Fennell observes: “Our research shows that many of us are becoming de-sensitised to more traditional forms of marketing, so it’s great to see Tetley embracing such an innovative approach.

Tetley’s investment in Virtual Gaffer forms part of a wider programme of activity in cash & carry and retail environments to stimulate growth in the tea market.”

Tetley is developing a number of initiatives to enhance shopper engagement with tea and is looking to work with a number of customers on specific activities in the coming year.

This is not the first time Tetley has worked with Tensator. Two years ago, the tea brand introduced Virtual Assistants to promote tea at a number of Co-Op stores in Kuwait. The female assistants promoted the brand by communicating the benefits of Tetley’s drawstring teabags to Kuwaiti shoppers.

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