Female Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Lipton launches new campaign amid spend increases

Alright, here's the tea, folks. Lipton Tea recently featured T-Pain in a new campaign designed to help support Black-owned restaurants. Made by Ten35, the campaign is designed to reach Southern and African-American audiences. Sellers should get in touch soon to secure last-minute ad dollars for this initiative.

According to iSpot, Lipton has allocated roughly $8m toward national TV YTD, up 36% from the roughly $5.9m it had allocated by this point of 2020. The brand ended up allocating roughly $13.3m toward this channel last year, down 15% from the roughly $15.6m it allocated in 2019. Lipton's 2021 commercials have targeted millennials (female skew) watching shows such as The Bachelorette, Last Man Standing, Today, the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards and Chicago P.D.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports the tea brand has spent approximately $1.4m on digital ads, an exponential increase from the approximately $140.6k it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. Lipton's estimated full-year spend of 2020 reached $3m, similarly exponentially more than that of $366.3k in 2019. It has earned around 210.7m digital impressions YTD via Instagram (56%), desktop display (16%), YouTube (15%), Facebook (10%) and mobile video (2%) ads. 

Right now, Lipton's female target demographic skews strongly toward Gen-Z and millennials. It's targeting this audience through TV, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook advertising. To reach this relatively younger audience even more effectively, Lipton may make forays into additional digital channels such as OTT and/or podcast down the road. Per Kantar data, the brand does also invest in local broadcast. It holds planning conversations in Q1 and buying conversations in Q4.

Agency & martech readers - Parent company Unilever hasn't, to the best of our knowledge, announced anything about the media buying review it was planning for this year, but we'll keep you updated. Reach out soon if your media buying services would provide necessary assistance. You will face competitors MindsharePHD and Initiative. View Unilever's full agency roster for its various brands here.