Red Label celebrates one lakh for tea on Facebook

The initiative aimed to connect with people over a cup of tea on Facebook, to mark reaching one lakh fans on its official page.

Connecting over a cup of tea is quite a normal practice for Indians. What if one can do it virtually as well? Red Label, one of the largest tea brands from the house of Brooke Bond, a brand from HUL, looked to connect with people over a cup of tea on Facebook, to mark reaching one lakh fans on its official Facebook page.

Conceptualised by Webchutney, the campaign used an interactive real time countdown on a dynamic Facebook Cover Photo. The idea was to have a live countdown from the final thousands to one lakh with a dynamic photo cover image. So each time a fan hit the Like button on the page, the countdown changed on the cover picture along with a cup of tea which filled up. A refresh timer was maintained at five seconds, after which the picture changed itself.

According to the agency, the Facebook page was nearing the milestone of one lakh fans and the brief given to it by the brand was to drive engagement and make the idea interactive and shareable. As a support to the activity, Facebook posts and stamp ads were run. The countdown app was built to capture new Likes to make the activity interactive.

The activity was initiated on July 31 with around 96,000 Likes on the brand's Facebook Page and within four days, on August 4, the target was achieved with 1 lakh fans on the page. When the activity started, the weekly People Talking About This (PTAT) number was around 1600, which is now at 8440, the agency claims.

The number of weekly engaged people on Facebook also grew from 2042 on July 28, to 9484 currently.

Commenting on the activity, Himanshu Kanwar, marketing manager, South Asia, HUL, says, "As a brand that is loved and preferred by millions, it is important to appreciate and show gratitude to our fans in an engaging and innovative way. The interesting twist on the countdown timer has served as an engaging activity platform which created a sustained buzz. We are keen to set such benchmarks that allow us to keep innovating with our products and engage with our tea fans."

The brand has been quite active on digital media to promote its products and offerings. In 2012, Red Label wanted users to convince actor Sonakshi Sinha that drinking tea is healthy by calling her at a number. For this, the brand ran TVCs along with a video on its YouTube channel to promote the number.

Brooke Bond Red Label is Hindustan Unilever's largest tea brand. Brooke Bond is the market leader of tea in India with a portfolio of five brands including Red Label, Taj Mahal, 3 Roses and Taaza, that have been created keeping in view the specific tastes and needs of the Indian population.