A Proper Fame Campaign, Part 2

Proper business results from a proper fame campaign.

Last week, we went back to 2017 and looked at the challenges faced by Yorkshire Tea.

As one of the last family-owned tea brands in the UK, they were doing … fine, sort of. With an 18.3% market share, they were #3 in the Standard Black Tea category behind PG Tips and Tetley. 

However, profits were down, and own-label brands were catching up. The entire category had been declining steadily since the 1970s. Tea is a commodity, so margins are slim for both wholesalers and retailers. 

And that was not good enough for Yorkshire Tea. So they decided to leapfrog Tetley and PG Tips to become the undisputed category leader …  while still charging a premium price. 

To do that, they launched a long-term fame campaign called “Yorkshire Tea. Where everything’s done proper.”

If you need a refresher, here’s just one of a series of ads featuring famous people from Yorkshire: 

A couple of things to note: 

Yorkshire Tea have been consistent in their messaging over the years while PG Tips, Tetley and other competitors kept switching things up. Today, “Where everything is done proper” is far more recognizable than their competitors’ taglines.

And their media spend has remained generally consistent over time. 

Because they were targeting a slightly older demographic, they leaned heavily on TV and streaming. 

It’s also important to remember that while Gen-Z might be looking at their phones, everyone still watches television. And if you want to reach millions of eyeballs (and you do), TV, radio and OOH are still wildly effective. 

So, did the campaign work? Yes! And it’s still working. 

Since 2017 …

More and more people say that Yorkshire Tea is their favorite brand.

More and more people claim Yorkshire Tea as their most recent tea purchase.

And more and more tea buyers feel Yorkshire Tea is a proper brew.

Yorkshire Tea’s blend hasn’t changed. People simply like it more because it’s famous. 

Also, household penetration rose from 25% to 31.5%. Share of Search is up by 33%. Brand recognition is at 83–86%. The ads are memorable and enjoyable — they make people feel good and attribution is high — and there’s no sign of wear out.

That’s all good, of course, but what about business effects?

From 2017 to 2022 — through COVID and an unprecedented cost of living crisis in the UK— Yorkshire Tea’s steadily grew their sales volume while maintaining a price premium.

And in a mature, declining category with stagnant sales year over year, Yorkshire Tea did what they set out to do — they surpassed Tetley and PG Tips to become the category leader.

What about the P&L? Excellent question. 

In the first four years, the campaign generated $31.4 million in additional sales and $11.7 million in additional profit for a Profit Return on Marketing Investment of $1.71. And that’s just the first four years. 

The campaign continues to be a massive success. What does that mean for you?

One of the most effective ways to build mental availability and grow your brand is by being consistent over a long period of time. Yorkshire Tea is family owned, and they have the luxury of thinking about the long-term brand health. So …

1. Find a proper big idea that is true to your brand and resonates with your audience. 
2. Be clear, compelling and relentlessly consistent in your messaging. Building brand fame takes time. How much? Years.
3. Feelings and emotional associations are critical to growing mental availability. That does not necessarily mean “make people cry”. It means making people feel the same thing or combination of things — joy, happiness, awe, pride, surprise, wonder, passion, etc. — over and over again.
4. Make a proper, long-term investment relative to your market share. Marketing is a pay-to-play-to-win game. Budget matters. 
5. And don’t forget about short-term sales activation tactics. The long game and short game work better together. 

We’ve linked the original case study below. It’s long, but if you are looking for something simply steeped in evidence for long-term, fame-building effectiveness, you’ll absolutely want to read it all the way through.  And one more thing: British people tend to bring their favorite tea with them when they go on vacation. Yorkshire Tea decided to have a little fun with that and capture a new category entry point. So they made this absolute bop of an ad called “Pack Yer Bags”.

It doesn’t quite fit within the “Where everything’s done proper” campaign ecosystem, but it is delightfully brilliant. 

We’ll see you next time. 

Sources!

“Yorkshire Tea: Long-term brand building done proper” – WARC, IPA

“If brands are built over years, why are they managed over quarters” — Harvard Business Review