‘Waking the sleep shoppers’: A proper effective campaign for Yorkshire Tea

Within a shrinking market, Yorkshire Tea wanted to win consumers from other brands to continue its growth. They had to do this by waking up the habitual ‘Sleep Shoppers’ who buy the same brand of tea on a regular basis.

Yorkshire Tea is 'a place where everything is done proper'. To bring this company ethos to life, they hired famously talented celebrities to do menial jobs around the company’s headquarters, highlighting how even small tasks are given proper attention.

• The Brownlee Brothers became tea couriers
• The Kaiser Chiefs provided holding music
• Sir Michael Parkinson became ‘Head of Interviews’

With their objective to reach as many non-Yorkshire Tea drinkers as often as possible, TV was chosen as the lead medium. Yorkshire Tea became a brand that was built on TV and benefitted heavily from the fame that it generates.

The results spoke for themselves.

• Yorkshire Tea overtook Tetley to become the number two tea brand in the UK
• YouGov Buzz Index declared that Yorkshire Tea was the 6th “buzziest brand” of 2017
• Kantar recorded a total increase in sales of £6.3m during the campaign period

The campaign won a Silver at the IPA Effectiveness Awards 2018.

Appearing on film:

Titles were correct at the time of publish date

• Sam Drake: Managing Partner, Goodstuff Communications
• Dom Dwight: Marketing Director at Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate
• Loz Horner: Strategy Partner, Lucky Generals