Showrunner and Lyons Launch ‘We’re Square’ Campaign to Announce New Look and Feel

To complement Lyons Tea’s transition from pyramid bags to square ones, along with their improved sustainable packaging and logo, Showrunner - Verve’s in-house creative agency - is launching the ‘We’re Square’ campaign. This is a loving tribute to everything wholesome, corny, quaint or unhip. It embraces everybody who is confidently uncool or has ever been labelled ‘square’.

The campaign launched its first piece of creative on October 5th with a Dublin Airport Skywalk Special made to resemble the hallway of the quintessential ‘granny gaff’, full of the kitschest of kitchen signs, naffest wallpaper, and a fittingly framed photo of ‘We’re Square’. This was followed by a series of digital 6-sheets that consisted of delightfully cheesy signs your parents would hang up, full of quotes, very aptly for the airport, about the importance of home, travel (and tea).

This was then followed up by twofold executions on October 18th- the first being the launch of Lyons’ Square Tea Party in the heart of Dublin. This charming event invited influencers from across Ireland to immerse themselves in a haven for enthusiasts of the un-extreme and un-fetch. This whimsical afternoon celebration was enriched by masters of crochet, origami and juggling running how-to sessions for guests throughout the day. And, to set it apart as the benchmark in square, tea-based shindigs, the space was brimming with old-fashioned floral patterns, tacky tea towels, and charming crockery.

In tandem, they released The Square News. This was a unique 8-page, square-shaped newspaper that saw 36,000 copies go out as an insert in the Irish Independent. Given how there’s nothing cool about print anymore, this was a perfect fit for the campaign. The paper was filled with puzzles, articles on knitting, grammar, recycling, and the weather. Plus legitimate reviews and reports of niche Am-Dram shows as well as alternative sports featuring croquet, boules, and Ultimate Frisbee. Plus a hefty amount of tea puns, of course.

The final creative was launched yesterday with the airing of the first episode of their digital series, Square Talk. Each Monday, this chat show style series will air collaboratively on both Lyons’ channels and their media partner, Joe.ie. The content has comedian and influencer Michael Fry talking to a guest each week about their favourite ‘square’ passion, and is filled with segments themed around those passions and putting the guest to the test. The first episode stars Susan Banks, a crochet artist who specialises in tea cosies made to look like famous figures.

Asked about the campaign, Sam Moorhead, creative partner in Showrunner, said this, "Throughout the years, Lyons has always felt like a nice, ‘milk, two sugars’, unextreme tea icon- in other words, square. This married perfectly with their new aesthetic and tea bags, and just feels like the right place for a tea brand to fit in the world. These days so many brands will try to do things like slick collabs or spoken word performances, so every piece of creative in this campaign is a reminder that, when it boils down to it, tea is supposed to be hot, not cool."

Check out Lyons’ Facebook or their new Instagram, @lyonstea.ie, to catch the next two episodes as well as all things wholesome, whelming, sensible and well, square.