Global tea promo gets cabinet nod
The government has approved the long awaited global promotional campaign aimed at boosting the tea industry, officials at the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) stated.
The global promotional campaign set to be carried out in 25 identified markets would cost a total of US$9 million (Rs.3.8 billion), SLTB Director Promotions Ms. Premila Srikantha told the Business Times.
She noted that the cabinet approval was obtained last week for the global campaign and that they were awaiting the official letter of award to the agency from the ministry.
The creative work related campaign has been assigned to Phoenix Ogilvy based on a previous selection while Grey First would be initiating the public promotions campaign, she explained.
The two advertising and PR companies were selected following submissions made to the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) and were appointed one year ago, Ms. Srikantha said.
In addition, the brand promotion trade fair subsidy and the joint promotion would cost the SLTB Rs.1 billion.
The Tea Board has also launched the brand promotion for exporters. Sri Lankan brands with 100 per cent local input would be supported in the brand promotion in their advertising campaign, Mrs. Srikantha said.
The tea industry was awaiting the global campaign for some time and had in fact expressed frustration even last year “that nothing substantial was taking place,” it was reported.
Though the two advertising and PR agencies were shortlisted they were not awarded the tender due to formality procedures and other approvals that were awaited.
The industry was looking forward to a “unified global campaign” to take Ceylon Tea into the global market.
In fact, the industry was getting worried that large sums of money was spent mostly on the tea shops and other relief programmes and cricket sponsorships without the expected funding made to the global promotional campaign.
Ms. Srikantha noted that the tea promotion campaign was expected to be launched within three months.