STORY IN A TEACUP. A BESTSELLER FOR 5 YEARS.
The Brief
Dragonfly Tea wanted a campaign to increase awareness of both the brand and the breadth of product range amongst their target audience, primarily ABC1 women, 35+ years old. Another key deliverable was to provide an environment where people could take ‘a little moment’ to try their teas in a cultural setting. The core range of 15 organic teas needed to be the focus of the campaign, and success would be measured by campaign statistics and anecdotal feedback.
The Response
We created the ‘Story in a Teacup’ short story competition. Our idea was born from the ethos that the state of mind needed to appreciate and create artistic work is akin to that found by taking the time to enjoy a quality cuppa.
We devised the campaign in its entirety, with three main parts: The 3,000 word adult competition with a huge first prize of £2,500, a 500 word Flash Fiction competition open exclusively to Facebook users, and a children’s competition.
An inspired touch across all three was the concept of using the wonderfully named teas such as Emerald Mountain and Moonlight Jasmine as story title choices for the entrants. One of the tea names was Skinny Dragon, which lent itself beautifully to be the story title for the children.
We devised a look and feel for the competition that had literary undertones, but was still distinctly the Dragonfly Tea brand. This was to be seen on everything, from Facebook banners to the uniforms of the roaming samplers at the Henley Literary Festival.
It was for this festival that we established Dragonfly Tea as one of the main sponsors. With over 7000 visitors, 62% of which are cultural 35+ women, the prestigious Henley Literary Festival was the perfect place to give the competition its prize-giving denouement. But that wouldn’t be all, as a lavishly dressed marquee in a quintessentially British afternoon tea setting would form the centre-piece of the Festival hub. Finding something new is often a pleasure, and people could discover new teas and new stories in one environment. Taking 5 minutes to read the rich content of the short-listed story booklets was the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea, and some critically acclaimed brownies! Our event team were run off their feet for the entire event!
Dragonfly Tea is a family owned, British tea company. With a hundred year heritage of sourcing, growing and making the very finest of teas, they travel the globe in search of artisan brews.
The Results
Searching the land for unique, uncovered rarities in the world of literary talent mirrored the essence of the brand perfectly, and this was born out by the fact that over 1000 adults and children were inspired to sit down and write a story. This was truly an amazing result for an inaugural year.
Social media and web engagement was set alight with budding writers and supporters. Both national and regional press ran stories, including articles in the Daily Mail online, the Huffington Post, and several appearances on BBC Radio Berkshire with Paul Ross.
Our friends at Henley certainly delivered with star judges presenting the awards including Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child, Me Before You romance novelist Jojo Moyes, and former Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer, who also hosted the prize-giving event with great aplomb.
The finale at the Festival saw well over 2000 cups of teas served and an incredible turnout. Post event, the winning stories were published on the Arbuturian website with accompanying illustrations, giving these new authors a great showcase, whilst the competition as a whole gave the brand the perfect platform for a recurring campaign of huge potential longevity and growth. The Literary competition is now in its 5th consecutive year!
Georgia Ginsberg, Company Director, Dragonfly Tea
“What appealed to us about the proposal from Gasp was the strength of the idea; making the tea titles integral to the competition was inspired. The management of the project’s critical path required real focus and planning, and to receive over 1000 entries was an incredible result that far surpassed our expectations. The interactions both on social media and with the people enjoying our teas at Henley were hugely valuable and genuinely engaging. It was a wonderful and successful campaign.”
