Tea and cough drops are a naturally aligned pairing, especially during cough and cold season.

And now, Ricola and Tetley are teaming up for a shopper marketing partnership, officially launching on October 30. The program will get throat lozenges into the tea aisle, and vice versa, with messaging around feeling your best this winter season.

Fuse Create produced co-branded in-store displays to highlight the dual power of the brands in keeping Canadian’s health and wellbeing in top shape when it’s needed most. The theory is that by granting each brand shelf space in a secondary grocery aisle – Ricola in the tea aisle and Tetley in the cough and cold aisle – it will increase their advertising space in retailers including Shoppers, Walmart and Loblaws, says Steve Miller, Fuse’s ECD, SVP and partner.

“We recognized their complementing needs to stand out as a go-to wellness product throughout the cough and cold season,” Miller says, telling strategy the agency connected the two simpatico brands as both are part of its existing portfolio.

The program also contains a contest where consumers can enter for a chance to win a travel voucher to a destination of their choice (an “ultimate winter escape”) with a value of $5,000.

“This partnership and shopper program is a bit of a test and learn,” Miller says. “If it tests well, I think there’s a likelihood we’ll see more shopper marketing initiatives in the future. Both brands feel the partnership complements the other, only time will tell if consumers think so too.”

The program heroes Tetley’s Super Teas line, what the company says is Canada’s first line of teas fortified with vitamins and minerals. Ricola, meanwhile, heroes its two maximum strength, highest efficacy products, called Menthol Centres and Extra Strength. These products put health and well-being at the forefront, reminding consumers that good-for-you ingredients can taste good too.

While this work is geared to cough and cold season, Ricola has recently been leaning into expanded usage occasions to drive interest. It’s a move informed by a slump in business thanks to COVID lockdowns, with the lozenge brand positioning itself as an everyday efficacy product for people who use their voice a lot. According to the brand, 30% of its consumers rely on them for relief beyond coughs and colds.

The Tetley/Ricola partnership is rolling out to stores now and runs until December across Canada.