All around the world, countries have their own Twinings Tea Blend (English Breakfast, Russian Caravan, Irish Breakfast, New Zealand Breakfast). It was time for Australia to create its own unique blend.

The Twinings Afternoon Tea challenge launched in March 2011. The premise: to challenge iconic Australians to blend an original tea that best reflected the taste of Australia with Australians voting for their preferred blend; the winning blend, to be placed on shelf on Australia Day 2012 with the winner’s nominated charity reaping a percentage of every pack sold. Over 60 celebrities took par;, the Twinings Master Tea Blender held a celebrity blending school; the blends were sent to London for judging with national broadcasters Jonno and Danno live on air from Twinings Tea shop on the Strand. A competition for Design Students to create the packaging was also launched. 5 finalists were chosen. Tastings were held around Australia. 9,000 Australians tasted and judged the 5 blends with 83,000 votes cast. The 5 celebrities - John Williamson, iconic singer/songwriter, Kerri-Anne Kennerly, Australia’s renowned morning television host, Layne Beachley, world champion surfer, Alan Jones, radio legend and former PM of Australia, and Kevin Rudd, MP - took to Twitter, created virals, sent out eDMs, hijacked radio stations, conducted interviews to entice Australians to vote. An online campaign helped to drive votes. In all, 83,000 votes were cast. Stephen Twining announced the winner; former PM Kevin Rudd launched the tea to a packed media contingent. Almost 1.4m tea bags were distributed via national newspapers in time for Australia Day.

The campaign launched in March 2011. 63 celebrities agreed to participate. The celebrity blends were numbered so as not to colour the judging. Tasting events were held at good food and wine events in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, with further events held by media partners, the charities and aligned events. The voting phase was 6 weeks in all. A micro-site was set up to log all online votes with daily running totals. Bloggers were engaged in the process and media partnerships were established. The design competition was launched via individual design schools and street/trade press with the eventual winner conducting a media schedule. We conducted a mass sampling campaign with more than 1.4m tea bags distributed through a national newspaper and synergistic organisations. Instore POS, a short TVC campaign during the Australian open, charity eDMS, engagement with the voters, online home page buyouts drove awareness and trial.

This campaign has helped push Twinings' total share from 20.1% to 26.3%, stealing share from other brands in the segment (May 2011 to February 2012).

Twinings' total penetration showed strong growth with over 390,000 new households entering the brand in the 12 months since campaign commencement with growth across all tea segments.

262,000 households have purchased the Australian Blend since launch on Australia Day January 26th.

Twinings has a 9.1% value growth over the last year. The campaign produced a reach of 118,206,603 against a KPI of 1.5m; the campaign PR AVE is $18,474,594 with 1,209 interviews conducted across newspapers (75), magazines (15), online (168), Bloggers (49), television (221) and radio (682). The KPI for interviews was 187.

The Australian Afternoon brand is the third best-selling blend in the range within 7 weeks of launch and will now remain as a Twinings blend staple.