Tata Tea: Jaago Re to Corruption

The Jaago Re campaign for Tata Tea is in its third year. This time, it takes up an issue which India has been grappling with for decades -- corruption

Mahatma Gandhi was of the view: Be the change you wish to see in the world. Tata Tea seems to have taken that up quite seriously. With the help of its advertising and marketing initiative, Jaago Re, this time, the brand takes up the issue of corruption.

In its third year, the Jaago Re campaign revolving around the issue of corruption has the tagline, 'Ab Se Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru'. In an official tete-â-tete with the media at a gathering, Sangeeta Talwar, executive director, marketing, Tata Tea discussed the fact that corruption has eaten into more than 50 per cent of India's population. Considering the gravity of the problem, Tata Tea chose to address it.

The television commercial is a montage of real-life situations of bribes been given and taken. In the end, the youth give the message to stop doing so.

Jaago Re began as a movement in 2007, with the aim to make tea a youthful drink, after a research showed that apart from people of other age groups, the youth consumed the beverage heavily too. Tata Tea wished to resonate with the youth.

The intent was also to have a unified message for the four brands under the Tata Tea umbrella -- Tata Tea Premium, Tata Tea Agni, Tata Tea Gold and Tata Tea Life.

A campaign featuring the scenario of politics played as a curtain raiser to Jaago Re in 2007. In 2008, with the elections round the corner, Tata Tea made an attempt to get the youth out of their homes to vote. The company put a website in place to ease the voting process for the youth -- www.jaagore.com -- which helped people with easy, step-by-step processes.

The website, Talwar reveals, got 28 lakh registrations, and 6 lakh first-time voters. Out of the 28 lakh registrations, one-fourth converted into final voting.

With the corruption campaign, Tata Tea puts forth the message to start with oneself -- begin with yourself and stop giving and taking bribes. Apart from the television commercial, the brand plans to reach out to each and every citizen across the nation, with the help of media such as outdoor, mobile and online.

Online and mobile have a significant role to play, as people can take the pledge against corruption online, or through messaging a short code from their mobile. People can also register themselves at various mall activations. In-store activities and passing on the message within the trade would also be done in a similar manner.

Tata Tea plans to measure the success of the campaign through a corruption index, which would be a quarterly figure released by the company, on the number of people giving bribes in three cities -- Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The number of pledges would be a measure of how many people have supported the campaign.

The commercial has been created by Lowe Lintas, Mumbai; the media duties are handled by Madison Media. One cannot help but point out the fact that the agency also creates campaigns along similar lines for the telecom brand, Idea. However, Talwar is quick to clarify that it is sheer coincidence, and also claims that Tata Tea undoubtedly made the first move in this regard. She adds that separate creative teams work on each of the brands.