Here’s how Tata Tea wants parents to wake up to the reality of climate change

In its latest ‘Jaago Re’ campaign, Tata Tea addresses the climate change crisis and appeals to parents to leave a better planet for their kids. To drive home the message, the brand makes use of nursery rhymes.

Conceptualised by Mullen Lintas Bangalore, the digital film depicts how popular nursery rhymes may have to be rewritten in the future, if we don’t act now. The film opens with kids reciting nursery rhymes like ‘Jack and Jill’, ‘Machli Jal ki Rani’, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Rain Rain Go Away’. However, the all too familiar lines have been replaced with harsher realities.

“Jack and Jill went up the hill…

To fetch a pail of water…

But all the water had dried up

The world was now much hotter”

Puneet Das, president - packaged beverages (India & South Asia), Tata Consumer Products, says that the campaign is based on the most basic parenting insight - of protecting children and ensuring that we do everything to give them a better future.

“We wanted to make climate change, a complex issue, more personal and relatable to people. While corporates and government bodies are doing their bit, we need to fight this together. So, we got the kids to talk about the issues that they can potentially face if we do nothing about it. It is essentially an appeal to the parents, reminding them about the world their kids are going to inherit.”

Tata Tea launched the digital film on the occasion of ‘World Environment Day’. It also launched a website that hosts information and tools to combat climate change. In the second phase of the campaign, the brand will also be looking at school activations.

Since the first ‘Jaago Re’ campaign in 2007, the leading beverage brand has consistently tackled important issues facing India. The line, “Election ke din agar aap vote nahin kar rahen hain toh aap so rahen hain” (If you aren’t voting on election day, then you are sleeping), awakened the country to a new form of purpose-driven advertising.

From voter awareness, to corruption, to women’s empowerment and more recently, COVID vaccination, the brand has touched upon several social issues over the years. However, since last year, it has turned to environmental concerns (climate change).

Das states that climate change isn’t just an environmental issue, but also a social issue, as it impacts humanity.

“It’s impacting everyone and the problem is becoming bigger by the day. It’s no longer a distant problem, but something that affects us in our day-to-day life. That is why we need to make it a part of household conversations. Every family needs to discuss what they can do and, more importantly, the current generation has to take care of its habits and have a sustainable mindset.”

Initially, the campaign was targeted towards the youth. It urged the youngsters to vote or to fight corruption. Tata Tea was also trying to push tea drinking habit amongst them.

In an interview with afaqs!, Sushant Dash, the one who wrote the first creative brief for ‘Jaago Re’ and currently the CEO of Tata Starbucks, said, “... there was a feeling at that point in time that tea was losing its relevance... while people continued to drink tea twice a day, in terms of imagery and perception, it was becoming a little fuddy-duddy...”

The current campaign is speaking to a little older audience, however, through their kids, “because this cause actually affects them the most. Our social listening has revealed that the people who’re raising voices, are obviously coming down in age. The TG has become younger, because they are going to get impacted the most. ‘Jaago Re’ has always spoken to the ones who are impacted the most and who can be changemakers,” Das explains.

For Tata Tea, ‘Jaago Re’ elevates the brand and gives it a perceived leadership. Even in its equity scores, the consumers acknowledge and give it credence for taking up these issues.

“When the campaign started in 2007, the word ‘brand’ and ‘purpose’ had not been spoken together. ‘Jaago Re’ really ushered in the era of brand purpose. Today, everybody is asking brands their purpose and what they stand for, and this campaign helps a lot,” states Das.

The campaign wasn’t born out of a communication need, but a business need - to optimise the brand’s media spend. The brand wanted to consolidate its media monies and get higher RoI on its media spends. Until then, each of the Tata Tea brands - Tata Tea Premium, Tata Tea Gold and Tata Tea Agni - were advertised separately. With ‘Jaago Re’, ‘Tata Tea’ was advertised as the mother brand, and each of these as product variants.

However, now every individual brand has its own ad campaigns and 'Jaago Re' remains a brand purpose campaign for all the brands.

"While we continue to individually invest in every brand's communication, 'Jaago Re' helps us connect all our brands together in a purposeful manner," Das says.

Having a common campaign for all the brands also means catering to both premium (Gold) and non-premium (Agni) ends of the market. Tata Tea has to identify issues and device communications that will be relatable to both the audience. The difference between a public service message and a 'Jaago Re' campaign lies in its ability to make these issues relatable.

"Issues like climate change are pretty universal and income-agnostic. Every parent, rich or poor, wants to do the best for the child's future. The beauty of this campaign is that we made an apparently complex subject universal and as basic as a parent trying to protect their child," he says.

The challenge is to consistently find a relatable issue every year. "We take up a cause if it needs to be talked about. If we don't have a topic that needs to be spoken about we are normally silent. It all depends on what the society is going through," he adds.

While Tata Tea was among the first brands to go down the cause marketing route, today every brand attempts to associate with a purpose. Das says its important for brands to associate with causes that are linked to the category and also they need to be sincere and authentic.

"The cause they are championing needs to be linked to the category that they operate in or their proposition. For example, 'Jaago Re' (awakening) is linked to tea. Also brands should use this platform only when they have something meaningful to say and not use it as a fad. Consumers can see through it. Brands also need to be consistent and not do it once in a while," he adds.

Every campaign has a shelf life. How would Tata Tea know it is time to conclude 'Jaago Re'?

"The campaign is just a mirror to the society. As long as the society faces such issues the campaign will remain valid. And as long as we're able to execute it in a disruptive, but simple and relatable manner, they will remain relevant. Hopefully it can last another 16 years and even more. It's a responsibility and every marketing team entity is aware of it," Das signs off.