Split scene: a man in reindeer ears and a blonde woman in an elf hat sip tea on a sofa; two men share mugs and biscuits
Submitted by Smoking Gun

PG Tips Famous Duos Influencer Tea Challenge

Influencer Marketing

Smoking Gun paired celebrity duos for a timed tea making challenge that introduced the new PG Tips blend, which the agency reports generated 1.67M impressions.

31KEngagements
1.67MImpressions
1MVideo Views
£10KCompetition Cash Prize

Case in 60 seconds

PG Tips launched a new tea blend, bag and box, and needed content that would carry its 60-second brew time to tea drinkers without implying any loss of the classic taste they trust.

Smoking Gun frames tea making in Britain as a quiet test of skill, because most people want to impress colleagues, friends and family with a perfect cup, so a time limit turns everyday pressure into comedy.

The organizing thesis was influencer duos, well-known faces often seen together, making tea for each other under pressure, so that the banter between each pair carried the brand message rather than a scripted claim.

Smoking Gun challenged Denise Van Outen and Duncan James, and brothers Ryan and Adam Thomas, to make the perfect cuppa in 60 seconds with the new PG Tips blend, capturing their debate over milk, sugar and what to dip. Tea bundle giveaways and a £10k cash prize then invited followers to share how they take their tea, with video running across Instagram, Facebook and X.

Smoking Gun reports 31,000 engagements and 1.67 million impressions across the campaign content and competition, along with 1 million video views across Instagram, Facebook and X.

Strategy Breakdown

Tea lovers who trust the classic PG Tips taste, reached through influencers the page describes as having mass reach and likability, and through those influencers' followers.
The page describes an unspoken pressure around making tea for others in Britain, so the campaign placed that pressure at the centre of the content rather than avoiding it.
A faster brew risks being heard as a weaker cup, which is why the brief required the 60-second claim to sit alongside the classic taste tea lovers trust.
PG Tips is positioned as the one point of agreement between the duos, who argue over milk, sugar and tea colour but agree on the depth of flavour of the new blend.
Most people want to make the perfect cup to impress others with their brewing skills, so Smoking Gun used that desire as the hook for both the challenge and the follower competition.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • X (Twitter)

Partners

  • Smoking Gun

Participation mechanic

  • Followers were invited to share how they take their tea for the chance to win a £10k cash competition prize, alongside giveaways of tea bundles containing the new blend.

Creator role

  • Denise Van Outen
  • Duncan James
  • Ryan Thomas
  • Adam Thomas — talent

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Engagements31K engagements
Impressions1.67M impressions
Video Views1M video views
Brew Challenge Time60 seconds
Competition Cash Prize£10K

Why Smoking Gun's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Pairing people who already share an on-screen relationship lets the banter carry the product, because audiences recognise the dynamic, so the message arrives inside a familiar exchange rather than a solo endorsement.

  2. 2

    A timed challenge turns a functional claim into the plot of the content, so the speed of the brew is demonstrated on camera rather than asserted in a caption.

  3. 3

    Attaching a giveaway to an opinion prompt such as how followers take their tea gives the audience an easy reason to reply, which extends the campaign beyond the original videos.

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