Challenge
Many people opt for ice tea as an alternative to soft drinks due to the impression that it’s a natural drink that is healthier for you. In the case of Lipton, it’s true - especially when it comes to their newly launched Sugar Free option. Republic was approached to craft an influencer marketing programme to leverage the brands marketing, activation and digital plans. Our goal was to showcase the healthy and refreshing nature of one of SAs favourite drinks. To do this, we were required to leverage the brands new launches: a lower kilojoule recipe for the range, and a completely sugar free option. Importantly, the brand wanted assistance in communicating a partnership with meal-delivery specialists Mr D Food.
Solution
Republic crafted a rounded approach to the launch led primarily by a wide influencer campaign to catch the attention of the target audience of primarily young South Africans from all walks of life. The campaign started with a broad media announcement and a creative product delivery to key media. The drop embodied summer in a playful (reusable) crate with fresh produce creating the perfect soft landscape on which the new Lipton Ice Tea could rest. In addition to the media release, Republic ran a series of digitorials with high ranking lifestyle news sites addressing the myths with the category and offering helpful mocktail recipes and usage scenarios to increase Lipton product enjoyment. The influencer campaign was centered on encouraging followers to enter the Lipton #LITSUMMER competition activated on the brand's social pages. We worked closely with our hand selected group of influencers to craft a series of posts and stories, primarily on Instagram, that would effectively mobilise their audiences to get in the summer mood and participate. Republic makes use of international influencer management software, Humanz, making the discovery of relevant influencers, the management of the campaign and the reporting thereof professional and exact.
Results
Whilst media coverage wasn’t an objective of the campaign, the product news was featured in magazines and online over the course of the campaign period. In terms of reporting, the influencer campaign took centre stage with the overall campaign impressions substantially exceeding the target at over 200% and the total quality impressions (based on our defined target audience) at over 766k. The engagement exceeded the set out target at over 100% and the quality engagements were over 20,000. The campaign reached a total of 1.7 million South Africans and a total of over 128,000 people saw the stories from the influencers. In total, over 1.7 million impressions were achieved at an average CPM of R19.36 and 44,940 engagements at an average CPE of R0.73. The engagement rate was good at 2.64%.
REPUBLIC PR
Want fresh marketing stories in your inbox?
Get the weekly email that makes you a marketing genius.
Stay informed and inspired, for free.