TE-A-ME: A bold attempt leads to victorious success
The 2016 U.S. presidential election has gone down in history as probably one of the most talked-about elections. Donald Trump - inarguably, was the hottest and most controversial keyword of the year (for all the wrong reasons) and considered as a major publicity stunt (Mccammon 2016). Everyone around the world was talking about Trump, from his use of Twitter to his offhand comments - the people and the media were crazily circled around him. The Trump effect sparked millions of social media debates, breaking the internet records for political discussions, and was an inspiration for countless viral quotes on the platforms (Kottasova 2016). Whether you hate him or love him, you cannot deny Trump's fame.
A bold fresh stunt
All the way from India, Te-A-Me delivered their special gift to Donald Trump straight to the Trump Tower in New York City. With more than 6000 tea bags, enough for a four-year supply of green tea, the packaged was hand-delivered to the presidential candidate by two lovely Indian ladies in the awe of New Yorkers. The message was shown on multiple digital billboards, captured the attention of everyone on the streets. With a loud and clear voice, it was delivered: "It's never too late to cleanse yourself. Please Mr. Trump, drink the tea".
Trump, at the time, was being infamous for his sexist and racist comments made during his presidential election campaign. His controversial statements were made everywhere, in the press, on Twitter, during interviews, or debates. Even he was on the path to becoming the head of the United States of America, people around the world were expressing strong concerns about his ethics. For all those reasons, many people believe Donald Trump was not a suitable candidate for the position.
So..."Why tea?" - one may ask.
With an excellent sense of humor, Te-A-Me wanted the world to know green tea can eliminate harmful radicals, purify the mind and body, and make people smarter - even to those considered to be beyond remedies! And that is scientifically proven!
A sweet success
In less than 24 hours, Te-A-Me received more than 1M views and organic content marketing activities. Within 3 days, the PR stunt reached over 3.1M viewers on Youtube in over 80 countries. Just in 2 months, the campaign received 42k likes and shares on the company's official Facebook page. The hashtag #TeaForTrump was included in 22,000 tweets, including those from celebrities like Deepak Chopra and non-Indian viewers from all over the world. The campaign received 200,000+ digital engagements on all platforms, receiving attention from the press in India and the USA. Some of the biggest sites like The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, PR Newswire were writing about the stunt, claiming it to be "bold", "wit", "unique" and "filled with a sense of brilliant mockery".
Not only did TE-A-ME Teas received positive analytics numbers, but its business also rocketed to success within just a few days. International companies are more interested in the company by 1100% comparing to before. Its main website received a mind-blowing number of organic traffic, helping it to increase by 9900% (Armworldwide.com, n.d). The company even open a website for this campaign only called TeaForTrump to enhance its popularity and update the real-time achievements it has accomplished.
In 2016 and 2017, Te-A-Me Teas received the Viral Marketing campaign India Digital Awards, Best Viral Marketing Campaign - Drivers of Digital Award, and Best Viral Marketing Campaign by Campaign in CIDCA, and serveral others, making it the most successful viral marketing campaign in India.
The secret sauce
Conclusion
Until the next thoughts, stay safe.
Hang Nguyen
Reference:
ARMWorldwide, 2021, ‘#TeaForTrump – Viral marketing case study’, ARM Worldwide, viewed 19 August 2021, < https://armworldwide.com/casestudy/teafortrump/?>.
ARMWorldwide, 2021, ‘Planning behind Tea for Trump real time marketing campaign’, ARM Worldwide, viewed 19 August 2021, < https://armworldwide.com/secret-behind-tea-for-trump-real-time-marketing-campaign/>.
Borges, A 2016, Two women hand-delivered 6000 tea bags to Trump Tower to help Donald Trump "Purify" himself, Buzzfeed, viewed 19 August 2021, <https://www.buzzfeed.com/andreborges/two-women-hand-delivered-6000-teabags-to-the-trump-towers-to>.
Johnson, S 2016, ‘Donald Trump tweeted himself into the White House’, The Conversation, 11 November, viewed 19 August 2021, < https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-tweeted-himself-into-the-white-house-68561?>.
Kolkata 2016, "#Teafortrump - an honest attempt to purify Donald Trump from an Indian tea brand Tea-A-Me, PRNewswire, viewed 19 August 2021, <https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teafortrump---an-honest-attempt-to-purify-donald-trump-from-an-indian-tea-brand-te-a-me-586788301.html>
Kottasova, I 2016, ‘Trump's win smashes social media records’, CNN Business, 9 November, viewed 19 August 2021, < https://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/technology/election-trump-social-media-records/?>.
Nelson, L 2016, ‘Donald Trump's history of misogyny, sexism, and harassment: a comprehensive review’, Vox, 12 October, viewed 19 August 2021, <https://www.vox.com/2016/10/8/13110734/donald-trump-leaked-audio-recording-billy-bush-sexism?>.
TEAMETEAS 2016, A US presidential candidate. An Indian tea company...Facebook, 14 July, viewed 19 August 2021, <https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=993333634048494&ref=sharing>
Walsh, K 2016, ‘Trump Takes a Beating for Off-Hand Comments’, U.S. News & World Report, 9 September, viewed 19 August 2021, < https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-09/trump-takes-a-beating-for-off-hand-comments?>.
Hi Hang,
ReplyDeleteReally like the way you structure the post in categories with all the hyperlink, I found it's very enjoyable when reading your blog as always. Interesting case study to see how Te-A-Me could leverage the most controversial figure in the US during that time to get the message go viral. And it was impressed to see all the 'outstanding' records of 1 million views in less than 24 hours. Hence, I do believe that the other secret to every campaign's successful execution is the combination of right timing, audience targeting, distribution channels, amplification, seeding, and cross promotion across various platforms. If there's one thing I want to add in is maybe a brief definition about STEPPS and introduce other factors as well for those who are not familiar with this terms and how can businesses applied it to make their message/brand go widespread. Overall, I enjoyed your article and can't wait for the next blog post to be published. Cant wait to see more from you :).
Hi friend,
DeleteI am happy to hear you enjoyed reading this, give me the motivation to keep writing 🙂
I definitely agree with the "timing". It is an important factor that businesses will need to keep an eye on, in order to stay up-to-date with the current trends to get viral on every messages. Thank you for your feedback, as I think reading about a practical case would be compelling, however, next time I will consider an introduction briefly explaining the marketing concept for new-learners. Looking forward to chatting with you more in the next blogs. Cheers!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing interesting and brilliant advertising. I like how you structured this blog. You firstly introduced an ad video, and talked more about it, then linked it to your analysis. However, I think there is a misunderstanding point there. I know you wanted to link Te-A-Me marketing campaign to Trump, but it is a problem in your analysis. Indeed Trump created triggered and strong feelings in communities, but if a firm takes advantage of these, then you may use a public approach. The approaches you pointed out are true but it came up with the wrong rationale. The firm used triggers, and it is illustrated by how Te-A-Me associates its products as cleanse functions with Trump’s bad ethics. It also used emotions that are surprise and brave in my opinion, when using Trump’s image as a marketing resource. Anyway, thank you so much for sharing the overwhelming ad.
Hi chi Hang,
ReplyDeleteThe advertising was fun, I actually laughed at the way the girl mocked Mr. Trump! =))) I also like the way you bring statistics here to prove the effectiveness of the campaign. But this campaign seems costly, doesn't it? Also, for the "Emotion" element in the STEPPS, I think that it does not only come from the controversy of Mr. Trump but also from the sarcasm of the woman (just like in my experience). I'm not an American and was not irritated much about what he did back then, but I may share this ad because it made me laugh and could potentially make other people in my community laugh as well! If the emotion was directly evoked by the strong arguments of Mr. Trump, by how people felt about him, it would be very dangerous since there were people loving him and hating him, so such mockery would be offensive to Trump supporters, right? This is just my opinion on the matter, and you can have a different view on that. Anyway, love the post as it brought me a joyful moment during this time! Hope you can stay safe and sound!