Tata Tea hits out at corruption in the second edition of its Jaago Re campaign
Jaago Re (awaken) is back. After a point-blank shot at politicians’ qualifications to do their job and a stirring campaign urging the youth to vote, Tata Tea now wants a pledge from you against corruption. Last week, the country’s largest tea brand rolled out its new television commercial targeting the rampant problem.
A clerk cleans food from his mouth with his fingers and says “Khaenge nahin, toh kaam kaise hoga? Haan?” (If we won’t eat, how will we work?). He then pushes an empty container from his lunch box towards a man with a briefcase sitting opposite to him and asks, “Toh laiye, kya hai?” (So what is that you have?), obviously hinting that he wants a bribe to do the work. Two young boys who’ve been watching the clerk come to him and one of them says: “Haan haan khaiye, ungli chaat kar khaiye” (Eat and lick your finger too).
The shot changes to several other instances showing corruption at work — a clerk counting rupee notes, a ticket inspector on a train accepting bribe from a passenger and so on — along with a narrative that says “Koi chhup ke khaata hai, koi jhuk ke khaata hai...koi bhagwan ke naam par khata hai” (Some hide while they accept it, some bend...some even accept it the name of god). Next, the shot gets back to the two boys who now ask, “But do you realise, why do people accept bribes? That’s because we offer them one.” One of them puts a cup of tea in front of the corrupt clerk and says, “Aaj se khilana bandh, pilana shuru — Tata Tea peeyo aur kaam karo” (Drink Tata Tea and do your work).
The commercial created by Lowe Lintas for Tata Tea is a part of a high-pitched 360-degree campaign titled Khilana band, pilana shuru that will run across mediums such as radio, internet, mobile phones, outdoor, in-store, traders and so on, and will urge people to take a pledge against corruption — they will not bribe to get their work done. The one-minute film will run across a variety of channels — general entertainment, news, youth-focused — for over 45 days. There is also a 45-second version that will be interspersed with the longer one after a while. The current commercial will be followed by another one on the same theme. “We have a very robust plan ready to take this campaign forward. This is going to be at least as big as the Jaago Re campaign before the election,” says Tata Tea Executive Director Sangeeta Talwar.
The core idea
The core thought behind Jaago Re goes back to 2007. That was when Tata Tea became the largest branded tea company in India in terms of volumes. It edged past the long-dominating market leader, Hindustan Unilever, in volumes with a 19.2 per cent share of the branded tea market. Being the top brand in the world’s largest tea market was surely a feat. That’s when the company decided to take the brand’s identity to another level. “Tata Tea was now a mega brand and we thought instead of the usual communication, let’s see if there is a big, mega idea that communicates the brand to consumers at a different level altogether,” says Talwar.
Communications relating to tea had so far been mostly about physical and mental rejuvenation. “It is a boring category. Tea is sold as a waking-up product. You wake up in the morning and have a cup of tea. We wanted to break out of that mould,” says Lowe Executive Director Tarun Chauhan. The brief to Lowe was to come up with an idea that linked to the “mega” nature of the country, its people and the fact that tea is its largest beverage, as also to make the brand younger, more contemporary and exciting.
“Tea has been the single largest consumption beverage in India with 91 per cent penetration. It is embedded in the DNA of an average Indian and cuts across various earning groups, age groups and both urban and rural populations. So we were looking for an idea that can embed itself into the heart, mind and soul of the average Indian citizen,” says Talwar.
Lowe then came up with the idea of Jaago Re — the thought being not just wake up with a cup of tea but awaken to what’s happening around you and the big issues you face everyday. The agency then looked into ideas that related to some of the issues facing the people of the country and found the one questioning the political system most appealing. In 2007, Tata Tea came up with its first Jaago Re campaign where a politician was questioned about his qualifications. In 2008, 2009 being an election year, the company took the idea forward with a campaign which urged the youth to vote, to select better leaders for a better democracy. “The thought behind the campaign was if only 10 per cent of youth vote today, imagine the potential if 100 per cent went to vote! You would get 10 times more votes,” says Talwar. The company thus came up with a campaign urging the youth to vote on the election day.
The campaign was supported by several enablement initiatives: The Jaago Re website was built to help voters register themselves in 35 cities. Tata Tea says about 3 million people visited the site, of which about 600,000 registered for voting.
In January and February 2009, Tata Tea did a consumer study through IMRB on how the Jaago Re concept has been accepted by the consumer and how did the campaign do. The sample size was over 3,500 consumers across urban and rural India. While 85 per cent of the consumers from urban parts recalled the campaign and related it to the Tata Tea brand, the figure was 70 per cent for rural consumers. “Clearly, there was a good connect with the brand and the likeability was high,” says Talwar.
Next big issue
Post-elections, Tata Tea looked into the next big issue facing the country. “After the politician issue, the big issue staring on our face is corruption. To come up with the thought was a no-brainer,” says Chauhan. “The task for us was how to convert it effectively into our brand idea (Jaago Re).”
“Corruption was obviously the next big issue. It’s the largest impediment to growth and development. So we chose it as a theme for this year’s Jaago Re campaign. But then we brought a twist to it,” says Talwar. If you look at the way the “Khilana bandh, pilana shuru” commercial has been done, says Chauhan, it is not about people being corrupt but about people encouraging corruption. “If you stop corrupting, the corrupt will stop — that is the thought behind the campaign. It is about when you have a cup of tea, it awakens you and therefore you can do things in life that are either for the betterment of the society or question current paradigms.”
A part of the 360-degree campaign will be the Jaago Re Corruption Index in three metros on who has paid a bribe in the past three months. The index will gauge the perception of people on corruption and quantify it on a quarterly basis.
The campaign will be supported by several ground-level activities. For example, across 70,000 trade outlets throughout the country, the company will have drop boxes where people can drop their pledge that they will not bribe. These booklets will then be collected and the retailer with the highest number of coupons in the area will be rewarded.
The online campaign will provide an opportunity to users to make a pledge through www.jaagore.com. Pledges can also be made over mobile phones through SMS. “The crux of the campaign will be the number of people who pledge. It will be a cumulative figure of all the pledges that we will receive through internet, mobile phone or trade channels,” says Talwar. So let’s see how many are awakened through the campaign. Will you make a pledge?
