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O&M, Lowe to give Indian tea an image makeover(Ecomonic Times, The (India) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 23--KOLKATA, India -- Indian tea is going for an image makeover. And the Tea Board has roped in Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) and Lowe India to impart a contemporary look to the brew. Basudeb Banerjee, chairman of Tea Board of India, told ET: "The campaign would be aimed at the youth. The idea is to establish tea as a 'cool, hep and yuppie' drink in domestic and international markets." O&M has been assigned to spearhead the campaign in the domestic market. Lowe India, on the other hand, has been given the mandate to promote Indian tea in the global markets. Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director of O&M, who once worked as a tea-taster, has taken personal initiative to work out the ad campaigns. "Piyush has the power to reach out to the Indian masses by speaking in their own language. We strongly feel that our campaigns will also speak the language of our target group -- GeNext," added Mr Banerjee. Tea Board's move to launch a nation-wide campaign has been prompted by the recent surge in domestic consumption of tea. In '05, domestic consumption of tea has crossed the 700m-kg mark and is expected to grow by another 3 percent in the current year. The rupees 4 crore domestic campaign will hit the market by end of this fiscal and will continue for a year. The global campaign, being worked out by Lowe India, will be launched in '06-07. "We have a fairly decent ad budget of Rs 38 crore for the next fiscal," said Banerjee. Tea Board would use both print and electronic media for promoting Indian tea in the domestic market. As part of the domestic campaign, Tea Board would organise events in four metros -- Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai -- and in cities like Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune and others. "The events will centre around college canteens," said Banerjee. The international campaign will be launched in four countries -- Germany, France, the UK and the US. "There will be a specific campaign of Darjeeling tea for the German market. Lowe is currently working out the contours of the campaign," he said. Tea Board has decided to give financial assistance to industry associations for promotional campaign. "The Union commerce ministry will reimburse 25 percent of the expenditure," Banerjee added. |