Case Studies - Yorkshire Tea

Client: Yorkshire Tea

Campaign: Little Urn Taste Tour 2008

Brief:

Execution of a nationwide tea, cake and biscuit sampling campaign, taking Yorkshire Tea’s “Little Urn” sampling vehicle into major cities and special events around the country, throughout spring, summer and autumn 2008.

Video: Click here to see a video report about this campaign

Target Audience:

• Shoppers
• Families
• Professionals

Campaign Description:

• Link Communication executed a nation wide Little Urn's Taste Tour for Yorkshire Tea
• The tour was set up so to maximise audience reach to suitable demographic groups, within each area visited. (Reading / South East London / Leeds / Yorkshire / West London / Windsor / Northampton / Lancashire York / Southport / West London / Swansea / Lincolnshire / East London / South West / West London / East London / Brighton / Leeds / London)
• With the rolling weekly schedule covering five days of sampling, across the following range of locations in each region:
• Supermarkets
  • Supermerkets were visited on Thursdays & Fridays between 09.00 and 19.00
  • The sampling unit was set up in front of the selected supermarket within each city during Thursday and Friday. This was either Asda, Morrison's, Sainsbury's or Tesco.
• Special Events
  • The teams distributed product samples in Special Events on Saturdays & Sundays during 08.00 and 18.00
  • Each week, the tour visited selected special events or food markets which happened throughout the 2008 calendar. (Cricket Match (England Vs. South Africa) / Yorkshire Week / Opera In Park / Innocent Village Fete / Horse Racing / Hot Air Balloon Festival / Lancaster Jazz Festival / Magic Loungeabout / Southport Airshow / Swansea 10k Run / Weston Beach Race / London To Brighton Rally / Bonfire Nights)
• City Centre Office Areas
  • Office areas were covered on Mondays from 07.30 to 18.30
  • Office workers started off each working week, with a "proper" cup of tea.
  • During peak rush hours and lunch times, the sampling teams were positioned on high footfall walkways around major stations and office area shops, sampling on the streets.
  • During mid morning and mid afternoon periods, the teams took the samples into local businesses (offices and shops) where possible, sampling to staff working within them.

Full Time Tour Manager

The tour benefited from an experienced tour manager from Link Communication, to take Little Urn across the UK. Their role was driving Little Urn to each location, set up and take down of the event area, stock management and quality assurance management of all aspects of the programme.

Local Area Promotion Teams

• To maximise audience reach and minimise budget, support staff were local to each activity area.
• Staff were briefed in advance of activity, sent samples to familiarise themselves before hand - and tested on product knowledge.
• All fully able to explain details of the tea, cake and biscuits, ingredients, flavours, local stockists, any sales vouchers, etc.

Sampling Equipment

• Little Urn; a purpose made van to brew hot tea.
• Where suitable, an extended sampling area was set up, with roaming jet packs, parasols, folding chairs and bunting.
• The promotional staff wore branded t-shirts and jackets which enabled the team to stand out to passers-by within central London.
• At the larger events promotional staff dressed up in costumes, these were a Tea Pot, Tea Mug or T Biscuit.

Results:

• More than 162,000 dry samples were distributed during 20 weeks of activity.
• Approx 75,000 wet samples (of hot tea) were distributed during the tour.
• Approx 100,000 biscuits were dsitributed.