Submitted by Richmond & Towers Communications

Alpro: Plant-Based Afternoon Tea Fit for a Queen

Richmond & Towers built a National Tea Day activation for Alpro around three drag queens and an etiquette expert, driving 230k visits to Alpro's site against a 100k KPI.

Created 240k organic TikTok views & 30k Likesorganic TikTok views and likes
1/3 of the UK population reachedpopulation reached
230k visits to Alpro's site (vs. 100k KPI)website visits vs KPI

Case in 60 seconds

Alpro asked for a plan tying the brand to a culturally relevant calendar moment, with the brief set against three goals at once: raising brand closeness and love, driving online engagement, and sending traffic to Alpro's website.

The campaign appears to turn on a coincidence of dates, because National Tea Day shared a day with The Queen's birthday at a moment when the approaching Platinum Jubilee had renewed pride in British traditions including afternoon tea.

Rather than treating afternoon tea reverently, the agency handed the ritual to drag performers and framed their endorsement of Alpro's My Cuppa drink as a Royal Seal of Approval, using British formality as the setup for the joke.

The Vivienne, Tia Kofi and Victoria Scone led an innuendo-laden video showing a plant-based afternoon tea, with etiquette expert William Hanson testing their manners, and the assets ran as Reels, Stories and posts through earned, organic, owned and targeted paid activity across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, carrying into user-generated content and Reddit threads with hundreds of upvotes.

Richmond & Towers reports talent engagement eight times higher than the industry average, 230k visits to Alpro's site against a 100k KPI, a third of the UK population reached, and 240k organic TikTok views with 30k Likes.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Afternoon tea sits inside a set of British traditions that the Platinum Jubilee had made newly proud and newly formal, and the work reads as placing performers associated with irreverence inside that formality rather than beside it.
Based on the available evidence, plant-based drinks have to argue for a place in a ritual defined by dairy, so putting My Cuppa at the centre of an afternoon tea addresses the substitution question through the occasion rather than through product claims.
Alpro's My Cuppa drink is the object receiving the Royal Seal of Approval, which makes the product the premise of the film rather than a sign-off at the end of it.
The reach and engagement figures suggest the audience treated the film as entertainment first, because the page describes shares, user-generated content and Reddit threads rather than any response driven by the brand message.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • TikTok
  • Twitter

Partners

  • Richmond & Towers Communications (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • The page reports user-generated content and hundreds of upvotes on Reddit conversations, so audience participation ran through sharing and commenting rather than through any entry route the agency built.

Creator role

  • The Vivienne — creator
  • Tia Kofi — creator
  • Victoria Scone — creator
  • William Hanson — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
organic TikTok views and likesCreated 240k organic TikTok views & 30k Likesvideo_views
population reached1/3 of the UK population reachedreach
website visits vs KPI230k visits to Alpro's site (vs. 100k KPI)traffic

Why Richmond & Towers Communications's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A calendar date that carries two meanings at once gives a brand a way in that reads as earned rather than borrowed, because the brand is joining a conversation the date already started rather than manufacturing one.

  2. 2

    Casting performers whose register clashes with the ritual being staged appears to be what produced talent engagement the agency puts at eight times the industry average, since the tension itself is the reason to watch.

  3. 3

    Pairing comic talent with a straight-playing authority figure, in this case an etiquette expert, gives an innuendo-led film a structure it can repeat, which is what allows one shoot to be cut into Reels, Stories and posts across four platforms.

  4. 4

    Reddit discussion is a signal a brand cannot buy, so its appearance here alongside user-generated content suggests the film travelled on its own terms rather than only through the paid support behind it.

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