In a country of 4.0m people NZs most loved drama, Shortland Street, reaches 1.4million viewers weekly and had the scale to drive results.

During their evening ritual of watching, women get their dose of scandalous drama providing fodder for the very best gossip.

In a NZ media first the Shortland Street Confessions were created – all-new, must-see, salacious content.

For the first time fans could hear the ‘spicy’ musings of their favourite characters via video blogs housed online.

Five bespoke branded content pieces leveraged the power of the stars (in character), giving a valuable reason for women to engage with Lipton Chai.

Lipton Chai was integrated via a multi-tiered partnership, including sponsorship of Shortland Street (TV and online) and tailored interstitials that connected the ritual of watching Shortland Street with drinking Lipton Chai at home. Free samples cemented the link between women’s favourite drama and Lipton Chai, fuelling viewer’s advocacy.

Lipton Chai Latte’s Spicy Gossip exceeded objectives:

•Share grew 61% YOY

•Dollar sales +6% / volume sales +8% YOY

Shortland Street Confessions content attracted audiences that were 130% above the usual number of ondemand streams, driving incremental views of Shortland Street content*.

•Awareness more than doubled

•Spontaneous awareness +21%

•Prompted awareness +30% amongst frequent Shortland Street viewers^.

•50% felt more positive about the brand^.

•40,000+ samples requested

And the Confessions content really got women talking:

•420,452 earned impressions via Facebook

•38,634 engaged users

* Colmar Brunton Research, pre vs post-test OnDemand viewership grew 10%

^ Colmar Brunton Research