The Campaign

Japanese people are known for being reserved, with inhibitions that often present hurdles in social interaction, especially when it comes to connecting with the opposite sex. So when the world’s leading black tea brand Lipton set its sights on gaining market share in Japan where green tea reigns, it served up a campaign proposition consumers couldn’t resist: Drink black tea to wind down and warm up just about any social exchange. Coffee and green tea both have carved out everyday ritual pairings. Coffee goes with morning, green tea with rice and wheat tea with hospitality. That’s left market demand for black tea extremely low and Lipton looking for a way into mainstream consumption. With scientific research in hand and led by a bold PR idea, that way broke wide open. Amino acid in black tea helps people relax and open up – a breakthrough finding that Lipton advantaged in a campaign all about helping reluctant conversationalists warm up, literally and figuratively. Through a first-of-its-kind social experiment around tea and conversation, the campaign irrefutably demonstrated that tea helps facilitate livelier social interactions. Proving that the campaign platform was big and bold was a 55% increase in Lipton tea sales.

The Brief

Among a large swath of consumers – from teens to elderly - create awareness of the unique benefits of black tea, building a solid place for it in Japan’s culture and beverage-scape. Focus on housewives as primary family purchase influencers. Increase sales of Unilever’s Lipton tea and overall black tea sales in Japan. • Increase year-over-year black tea consumption by 18%+; double annual black tea consumption by 2015 from 2011. From research, Lipton gleaned a breakthrough insight -- amino acid in black tea induces relaxation. For reticent Japanese, here was reason to steep bags of the tea in social situations.

Results

• Sales of Lipton tea jumped 55%. • A post-campaign survey found that 66% of respondents believe that tea actually does create lively conversation and loosens people up. Before the campaign only 62.5% believed so. • More than 600 online and traditional media outlets covered the campaign, generating more than 450 million impressions. • Media exposure from the survey which included the opening of the “Love Success Café” survey results reached a media exposure of 61 and 34,028,538JPY. • The press release which summarized results of a survey on the unique characteristics of mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships by prefecture received 34 media exposure and reached 20,650,000JPY. • The event to launch the special collaboration products developed with fashion brand BEAMS received 431 media exposure and 349,867,976JPY. The number of exposure opportunities with trade newspapers and magazines was increased due to the enhanced presence of the brand.

Execution

• Lipton shared study data and supporting evidence from neurological medicine and other communications experts demonstrating black tea’s intrinsic value as a social relaxation agent. • Lipton “Love Success Cafes” around Valentine’s Day were a highly visual social experiment to show how drinking black tea facilitates interaction. Participants were wired up with brain sensors and neuro-active cat ears that stood up when they became socially engaged, showing them overcoming social inhibitions. • A verbal communication expert presided over the café event with observations and commentary on the experiment. • Coinciding with the Japanese homecoming season, a survey on relationships between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws also offered an opportunity to showcase black tea as warming agent. • Lipton joined with popular fashion brand BEAMS for limited- time-only fashion and tea offerings to underscore the idea that black tea fosters great relationships

The Situation

The world’s leading tea brand Lipton has made its mark in global popularity by making tea – once an expensive drink enjoyed mostly by the wealthy -- accessible and affordable for everyone. For Lipton, the Japan market has represented a partially-filled cup in unrealized sales opportunity, since the frequency of drinking black tea – Lipton’s hallmark product -- is overwhelmingly low in Japan compared to coffee and green tea. Through this campaign, the brand sought to turn up the burner to create stronger market demand for black tea and at last find its place in Japanese culture.

The Strategy

Japanese have a reticence that makes conversation and social interaction awkward. The PR-led campaign focused on black tea’s inherent qualities that enable people to relax and enjoy easy conversation with others in social situations. The campaign positioned black tea as a tasty way to help people establish harmonious and positive relationships with others. By connecting “relax” and “conversation,” Lipton found and communicated a pairing for black teas as potent as coffee-and-mornings and green-tea-and-rice: lively conversation among people. At the core of the strategy was a live social experiment – Love Success Cafes – that wired up men and women to show how social activity in the brain comes to life as they drink black tea. Backing this up was the release of scientific data highlighting the correlation between black tea and social interaction.