By Sahana Jayaraman for Pepperdigital, Peppercom’s digital blog

Over the centuries, tea trade has shaped culture and significantly influenced power and politics in both the East and the West. Therefore, it should be no surprise that, in today’s digital world, Tata Tea, a staple household brand of ”Chai” or tea, in India, is taking its role in society seriously.

See this recent Ad Age article on their new Indian ad spot, “Jaago Re.”  In Hindi, the national language of India, Jaago Re translates to “Wake Up.”  Naturally, its expected that a key selling point for tea drinkers is its ability to wake you up in the morning!

According to the author of the article, Sourabh Mishra , the “ad started with a campaign for the brand based on the proposition ‘Jaago Re,’… But the leap in the thinking happened when they took the ‘Wake Up’ proposition beyond the physical waking up to a larger call for social action.”

India often complains of having a large “gap” between those living in high rises and those living in the slums. This poses many challenges across the board – especially for marketing to the masses. Tata looked to advertise  to this very “gap” –masses of educated middle-class people.

In an effort to grab their attention, Tata honed in on an issue central to their role in India’s society with a problem-solution approach to this controversy. Seemingly just another ad spot, the message to “wake up” signified a far greater call to action than encouraging folks to buy and drink tea.

A problem that needs attention

This year, marks a general election year in India, the largest democracy in the world. As Mishra articulately explains:

A widely acknowledged problem in India is the large percentage of no-show voters, especially from the educated middle classes. So now you have this TV commercial from Tata Tea, wherein a group of young men is exhorting people to “Jaago Re” (wake up) and go out and vote on election day, because if they don’t vote, that means they are sleeping. They are handing out cups of Tata Tea to wake people up and send them to the ballots.

Sounds a little like MTV’s Rock the Vote, huh? Well, it gets better.

At first, one may feel this strategy has the risk of alienating the middle class by evoking a sense of guilt. However, instead, Tata empowers the younger generation and is very careful not to blame the people they target, but rather the infamous “process” of Indian politics. The underlying problem behind this issue is the hassle and corruption involved in the bureaucracy of voter registration. This is why the second part of the ad spot is simply genius!

A solution for change

The solution the ad suggests is at www.jaagore.com. The site’s look and feel is patriotic and appeals to a younger audience. The tag line, ‘Jaago Re! One Billion Votes’ screams out at you from the homepage. Once you enter the site it offers you all the information you need to become an awake and “conscious” citizen. It outlines the registration process in detail, tells you where you can go to register in your city, the benefits of registering, how to get others involved through Facebook, Orkut, and by volunteering. It’s a one stop source on voting.

Tata not only brings social awareness to a very real problem but becomes part of the solution as well. As Mishra states, “The brand team stood conventional wisdom on its head and used digital to connect with mass India. The brand message is an intrinsic part of this movement to “wake up” the slumbering Indian voter and get him to take part in electing his leaders.”

The article points out that the only reason this campaign was made possible was because someone understood the possibilities of reach using a digital medium.

The Tata Group, who owns Tata Tea, is a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India. The group invests in businesses associated with steel, automobiles, information technology, communication, power, tea and hotels. In terms of market capitalization and revenues, Tata Group is the largest private corporate group in India and has been recognized as one of the most respected companies in the world over the years. Needless to say the company has been an icon of India.

Serving as a double entendre, “Wake Up” is a creative message for the Tata Tea brand. When this campaign concludes, whether Tata Tea sales are up or not, they have successfully positioned themselves as a socially responsible corporation cognizant of their power to persuade the masses. I’d say, for an multinational like Tata, that makes excellent PR sense.

To: Sahana

From: Holly Green

Last night my buzzer rang and from the lobby I heard a voice, “Sahana, you have a floral delivery.” I paused for a minute, thought about the date… “No, it isn’t a special occasion, isn’t my birthday…”

I ran downstairs to see what this was all about. The delivery man handed me a beautiful pot with a vibrant green plant assortment.

I opened the card and it read …. [click here to read the rest]

Last week, we represented PepperDigital at Silicon Valley’s PRSA 2009 Media Predicts event held at the Computer History Museum. The annual dinner event hosts a panel of Valley tech media insiders who highlight the tech happenings of the current year and offer projections for the following – what’s hot and what’s not.