While tea continues to enjoy some popularity among older Australians, new generations of consumers
aged 18 to 35 don’t see it as an option for them, associating the drink with their grandmothers and
opting instead to participate in the nations love affair with coffee, craft beers and new non-alcoholic
substitutes which are growing in number and popularity.

We needed to reposition tea in the minds of these new generations. Giving it some alluring attitude and
highlighting its suitability as a catalyst for human connection. One that is superior to the target
audiences’ current beverages of choice.

The fact is, unlike alcohol which comes with a spectrum of consequences that are being increasingly
shunned by younger Australians, or coffee which is used more as an accelerant while they’re on the go -
tea has the unique power to make people pause, be more present and let the conversation start flowing.
Something that we identified as a growing need, among a generation that’s ironically feeling more
disconnected than ever.

The challenge was that many brands promise connection. It’s a well-trodden territory that on its own
wouldn’t inspire the reappraisal we were after.

We needed to promise connection through a lens that was distinctive, that had the irreverence
Australian audiences traditionally find appealing, and that leveraged the kind of cultural insight our
audience would find authentic and highly relevant to them.

Our creative strategy was to focus on a type of human connection that people, both young and old,
arguably love to indulge in most – the exchange of gossip, news, secrets, revelations, and all things
overheard. A type of connection that the ritual of making and consuming tea created the perfect moment
for.

Significantly, we identified an expression that was currently in the vernacular, that spoke to the beverage
we were selling, and simultaneously celebrated our target audiences love for connecting over gossip –

SPILL THE TEA

You won’t find many young Australians who don’t regularly declare that they have “tea to spill” or
prompt their friends to “spill the tea” when there’s some significant or exciting news to share. It’s an
expression that is ubiquitous and much loved.

In the hands of our brand, it’s an authentic way for us to position Tetley as catalyst for the type of
connection our audience loves to indulge in, creating a powerful, ownable call to unite over a cup – that
we can explore in highly engaging ways across our entire communication mix.

Furthermore, beyond its relevance to both our product and our consumer, it has a tonality that is
unfamiliar to a normally stuffy tea category, and as such it quite effortlessly elevates us out of the
clutter…particularly when brought to life in distinctive and unexpected ways through creative execution.
For us, it has both legs and longevity. We were amazed that no other tea brand had already laid claim to
such a culturally relevant strategic insight and expression. And our recommendation would be to invest in
making Tetley synonymous with it, over the long term. Platforms that successfully infiltrate culture, while
being so relevant to the role we want our product to play in consumers lives, don’t come around often.