Why is this work relevant for Media?

The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most extreme and intensified sports rivalries the world has ever seen. The sentiments across the border on the match days are that of hatred and anger. For the very first time in the sporting history of these countries, two players Venkatesh Prasad of India and Aamir Sohail of Pakistan known for their infamous spat came together on live sports on television over a cup of Brooke Bond Red Label Tea to re-live a 22 year old rivalry; chat about their epic exchange, share a laugh and break barrier.

Background

Mere salience was not resulting in Brooke Bond Red Label Tea’s growth in India, country with 4000 tea brands. Our objective was to break clutter delivering brand purpose “help people find common ground over a cup of tea” thereby increasing brand pen by 100 bps brand equity by 200 bps

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

Brooke Bond Red Label, a leading Indian Tea brand propagates “taste of togetherness” by breaking barriers. Salience alone was not helping, key was to break clutter by bringing alive brand promise of ‘breaking barrier’ and engaging with audiences resulting in growth. Touted as Super bowl of Asia with 100 million+ sports fanatics on both sides of border hooked onto TV screens India-Pakistan rivalry is arguably bigger than Barcelona-Real Madrid in Soccer, Australia-New Zealand in rugby and Ali-Frazier in boxing. Partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947 and subsequent Kashmir conflict, three major wars laid the foundations for emergence of an intense sporting rivalry between India-Pakistan who had otherwise shared a common cricketing heritage. While India gained independence, but a barrier remained unbroken; this was the idea. BBRL decided to help arch rivals India Pakistan find common ground but this time over different “Cup”– a cup of tea!

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The 1996 Cricket World Cup spat is etched even to this day in every India-Pakistan fan’s memory where Pakistani opener Aamir Sohail hammered the Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad for four and brashly signaled the bowler to fetch the ball. The Indian paceman bowled a leg-cutter and Sohail went for big heave but missed the line & the ball crashed into his off stump. Now Prasad promptly showed him way to pavilion. 22 years later 2018 Asia Cup where both the nations were playing after 15 months, the dominant sentiment was of intense rivalry. Brooke Bond went against the grain of the prevalent sentiment with its own take of helping people find common ground. We brought the two stalwarts together over a cup of Brooke Bond tea and chat about their epic exchange of 1996 match, share a laugh and relive memories live during India-Pakistan

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign was executed in three parts A Teaser leading to the master content piece was released on Star Sports channel and it’s social media handles a week before India and Pakistan match was going to be broadcasted live. The hero content played live during India & Pakistan match- A “5 minute” conversation between two rivals over a cup of Brooke Bond Red Label tea where they laughed and relived the whole moment and truly broke barriers. This was followed by a warm recreation of the moment with little twist i.e. this time with Venkatesh Prasad batting while Aamir Sohail bowling! But for arch rivals to really talk about togetherness while teams were ripping it apart on field needed some nudge. A battery of influencers came together to strike positive sentiments- Cricketers, Commentators, Diplomats, including those from 1996 match, across media, reaching millions over 3 weeks & eventually Breaking Barriers.

List the results (30% of vote)

Campaign touched the chords of 60 million Indians. 14X surge in brand mentions, 2X improvement in positive sentiments. Brand Equity Score increased by 330 BPS- 57.5 to 60.8%. Penetration Increased by 110 BPS, became India’s no.1 Tea Brand, 113 BPS ahead of No. 2 brand (Source: BTS, Unilever). What makes us Happier is that it gave people on both sides of the border a reason to smile and a moment to cherish, thus an attempt to #breaking barrier over a cup of tea.