Tetley ad

Tetley is launching a £10m push as part of “ambitious” plans to reclaim its spot as the nation’s bestselling tea brand and bring the struggling category back to the boil.

The push kicks off on 8 January with a TV campaign introducing an It Starts With Tea positioning for the Tata Global Beverages brand. 

Designed to ‘celebrate the best of Britain’ since 1837 - the year the Tetley brothers set up their business - the commercials feature Gaffer and the team taking a peek into the past to see national heroes, such as Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill, celebrate historic moments with a Tetley brew. 

The TV push, which will be supported by print, digital and social media, will also highlight updated ‘fresh and clear’ packaging - designed to make it easier for consumers to differentiate between brews - which is rolling out across the brand from this week. 

The two-pronged bid forms part of Tetley’s strategy to return as the bestselling tea brand in the UK, director of shopper and customer marketing Andrew Pearl told The Grocer. It is currently the third-biggest brand after PG Tips and Twinings. It was the bestselling tea brand back in 2007 [Nielsen 52 w/e 21 April 2007].

“Tea has had a lot of negative press recently; we are all guilty of sometimes underselling it, but the fact is tea is still the nation’s first choice of hot beverage,” he said.

The campaign follows a £13m investment for the brand this year as well as the January launch of Tetley Super Green Tea, which Tetley said had clocked up £1m in sales. 

Yet this has not reversed the negative trend for the brand, down 11.4% to £90.5m on volumes sliding 5.5% in a tea market down 3.5% to £579.8m [Nielsen MAT 10 October 2015].