Lyons campaign to fight for tea's `slice of throat'

The people in the new Lyons tea campaign look comfortingly ordinary - in the 48-sheet poster they're a shivering and dripping foursome on a beach after a swim, with non-designer towels around their waists to cover their equally unfashionable swimsuits. The only clue to the product is the flask in the hands of one of them.

It's a refreshing change from all the other overstyled, too-clever posters out there and, according to Ms Valerie Hynes, brand manager, Lyons Tea, the poster reflects the new creative strategy: "Because there's life, there's Lyons." The £1 million (#1.27 million) campaign, which started on television yesterday, was devised by the creative team at Ogilvy & Mather in Dublin, which is headed up by creative director Mr Ian Brower.

The swimmers feature in the poster as well as in the 40-second television advertisement which is a series of tea-drinking "slice of life moments".

The unsuspecting swimmers were approached for the advertisement after a swim at the Forty Foot in Sandycove in Dublin. The rest of the cast in the campaign are models or actors.

The Lyons brand has been off the air for a year, a long time in the life of any brand but particularly long in such a competitive market. Lyons has 50 per cent of the Irish tea market but, according to Ms Hynes, the marketing of coffee as a lifestyle drink has eroded - and this is the industry term, the "share of throat". The relaunch of the brand was prompted by the company's feeling that Lyons tea was perceived as being out of touch.

The brand's previous campaign was the long-running Minstrels which, despite updating, appeared increasingly old fashioned.

As part of the rebranding, the company has introduced a new tea type, which surprisingly isn't a herbal or fruit tea but a light version of its classic blend.

Irish people are still the biggest tea drinkers in the world, consuming on average 20 million cups a year or seven pounds per person per year.

The new campaign will run for a year.