Tata Tea’s Jaago Re — One Billion Votes campaign, in association with NGO Janaagraha, has achieved the task of getting over 6,00,00 voter registrations.
By the time you read this, one of the biggest ground activation exercises by an Indian corporate would have completed its mandate of shaking a billion Indians out of their reverie to go out and cast their ballots.
Tata Tea’s Jaago Re — One Billion Votes campaign, in association with NGO Janaagraha, has achieved the task of getting over 6,00,00 voter registrations. In their last-minute effort before the polls to poke the common man out of his slumber, Tata Tea blacked out all the leading news channel for two minutes on April 28 and April 29.
A blackout of this nature in advertising parlance is called ‘roadblock.’ Tata Tea’s gimmick was conceptualised and created by creative agency Lowe Lintas. It featured a blank screen followed by the sound of a man snoring in the background and the letters — ZZzzzz...
These spots test viewer’s patience and just when he feels like switching channels, a marquee scrolls by with the text — ‘switching channels won’t help.’
After a while, a message comes up on screen telling viewers to ‘wake up’ and vote. These spots, executed on 8-10 news channels by Tata Tea’s media agency Madison, helped reach a crescendo just before the polls that few other advertising campaigns could achieve in the past. An activity of this nature, executed at prime time hours, costs lot of money. It probably took a lot of guts for Tata Tea to spend such a huge sum just to get the first-mover advantage in urging viewers to go out and vote.
Tarun Chauhan, executive director, Lowe, said, “A roadblock is generally to launch a campaign simultaneously across all channels. News channels seemed the right fit for this kind of activity, considering it deals with the elections. In a way, it accelerates call-to-action that this entire campaign sought to generate since its was launched in 2007.”
Chauhan added that after the elections, Tata Tea would continue to retain the Jaago Re stance and touch upon several other issues that India needs to wake up to.
Sangeeta Talwar, head — marketing, Tata Tea, said, “The Jaago Re campaign has the highest recall if you look at all the ads that encouraged youngsters to come out and vote.
When the elections were a few days away, we decided to take the campaign beyond advertising and create something that was disruptive and differentiated. A reminder call was necessary and the 2-minute duration of the blackout only adds to the impact. We chose the 8:58 pm to 9 pm time slot, considering it’s the peak viewership period on news channels. A similar blackout will be repeated on May 5 and May 6.”
The Jaago Re campaign has a website by the same name — created by Arc Worldwide — which acts as the focal point for registering voters and hosts all information about the elections. It was recently selected as an Official Honoree for the Activism category in The 13th Annual Webby Awards.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}