Navigating a giant shopping mall during a long weekend isn’t exactly a peaceful experience. But Tetley looked to change that at Toronto’s CF Sherway Gardens Shopping Centre with a moment of Zen amid the chaos. The brand activated a multisensory pop-up, Feb. 16-19, that served as a launch event for its Live Teas, a collection of brews designed to inspire mindfulness and self-care. The sentiment behind each new tea—Live Calm, Live Cool and Live Bold—was brought to life in three monochromatic rooms, where sensory elements, art installations and messaging like “Have you taken a moment for yourself today?” beckoned shoppers in.
Sipping a hot cup of tea is commonly seen as a mindful practice and mental wellness boost, and that’s exactly what Tetley leaned into when it came to crafting its new product line. Live Teas are the brand’s response to not only the growing conversation around mental health, but post-pandemic feedback from consumers who indicated the desire to “recenter” themselves and be more present. The “Live in the Moment” pop-up activation aimed to do just that.
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“This is a unique portfolio where we are talking about mental health,” says Naihely Hernandez, brand manager at Tetley. “We wanted to do something different. Of course, we’re doing the rest of the marketing mix. But we wanted to create some noise and get people to talk in a different way.”
Pop-up participants were first greeted by carefully selected brand ambassadors, who asked consumers questions about how they were feeling that day, educated them on the new product line, answered questions and invited them to partake in a moment of mindfulness. From there, visitors could explore the Instagrammable pop-up on their own and, of course, sample the teas.
In the Bold room, every surface was red except for the glittering silver disco balls that lined the floor (the motif was inspired by the song “Dancing Queen”). The centerpiece was a larger-than-life, sparkling teacup featuring two cinnamon sticks. In the Cool room, which was blue and peppered with green accents, an aromatherapy diffuser offered consumers a whiff of spearmint and peppermint, the key ingredients in the Live Cool product. The room also had an oversized teacup installation, this one tilted on its side and designed for seated photo ops.
And in the Calm room, the idea was to celebrate relaxation, but in an “active way” that felt joyful. The yellow-infused space included floor cushions built to look like cookies and an oversized teapot “pouring” flowers into the branded cup below it. Each of the rooms additionally included a wall of quotes that was inspired by the feeling it was designed to evoke. Ultimately, more than 4,500 consumers passed through the pop-up.
“We truly wanted consumers to see this experience and this new product as the opportunity to live in the moment in the middle of chaos—a busy day at work, a shopping mall—to remind them of the importance of relaxing and staying present,” says Hernandez. “I was super excited and pleasantly surprised to see consumers being able to actually disconnect from the crowdedness and the noise and fully immerse themselves in the activation.” Agency: FUSE Create.
Go Inside the Pop-up:
