CELESTIAL SEASONINGS
THE CALMEST TEA BRAND TAKES ON THE MOST CHAOTIC MONTH IN SPORTS.
CAMPAIGNS | OCTOBER 2025
THE TEA BRAND THAT STANDS FOR SLEEPYTIME.
Founded in 1969, Celestial Seasonings now serves over 1.6 billion cups of tea each year. Despite an extensive product line that ranges from black tea to herbal and wellness offerings, Celestial Seasonings is best known for Sleepytime, an herbal tea synonymous with rest and winding down.
THE TEA CATEGORY GROWS, BUT CELESTIAL SEASONINGS IS OUTPACED BY COMPETITORS.
Brands like Lipton and Arizona dominate through ubiquity and convenience. Emerging specialty teas own clear functional lanes: energy, detox, and weight control. Traditional bagged teas compete for everyday relaxation moments. Celestial Seasonings represents calm, but almost exclusively at bedtime. How can the brand increase its relevance in larger cultural occasions, reaching audiences in need calm that aren’t currently targeted by tea?
MARCH MADNESS HAS TRANSFORMED FROM COLLEGE BASKETBALL TO CULTURAL MOMENT.
In 2025, the tournament saw record viewership and $3.1 billion was wagered in legal betting. Brackets are submitted. Work is disrupted. Energy is fueled by brands across chips, soda, and alcohol.
March Madness celebrates exhilaration. But not everyone experiences the tournament as excitement. Partners, friends, and family navigate the chaos because their loved ones are living in it. We call them Fans of the Fans.
With conference championships bleeding into three weeks of games, tip-offs starting anywhere between 12 p.m. and 9 p.m., the chaos of March Madness compounds.
At first, it’s in-the-moment stress:
“I think it is stressful sometimes. To see someone so worked up over something they don’t have any control of.”
Then the stakes rise. Brackets fuel fans beyond their teams’ results, and greater hope comes at the risk of greater frustration:
“Sometimes the energy can be very intense, whether that is excitement or deep frustration and you have to realize it's not directed toward you in any way. Though sometimes during the game or soon after, their energy may be directed towards you as well.”
As the tournament reaches its peak, relationships absorb the weight of 67 team losses and are put to the test:
“[It’s] like being a [third] wheel. Sometimes I try to ask questions to understand what's going on and they don't bother to explain.”
The men’s tournament peaked at 21.1 million viewers in 2025. If we conservatively estimate that there is one loved one for every viewer, that’s 21.1 million people managing the fallout of the madness, not including the women’s tournament.
Behind the Insight: Interrupt your dad’s game to explain why Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea actually aren’t interchangeable.
Behind the Insight: Ask 24 “sports widow(er)s” for their most effective March Madness peace-keeping rituals.
INSIGHT - THESE LOVED ONES ARE FANS BY ASSOCIATION, BUT THEY’RE SURVIVING THE MADNESS, NOT CELEBRATING IT.
Brands feed into the frenzy of March Madness, but no one serves the people most in need of calm. Fans don’t need more energy, they need permission to carve out moments of peace without disconnecting from the people they love.