Red Label tea wants you to convince Sonakshi Sinha that drinking tea is healthy by calling her at 09004666666.

Playing along Akshay Kumar’s role as an unruly Rowdy Rathore who fights, dances and romances with gay abandon, is Brooke Bond’s Red Label tea. In the new Red Label Health challenge, the brand has roped in the lead pair, Akshay and Sonakshi to take the brand message ‘Swast rahein, mast rahein’ to the masses.

A video released on Red Label’s Youtube brand channel features Akshay having a cup of Red Label tea all the while during shooting with Sonaskhi, causing her to be miffed up with Akshay’s obsession with the tea. Akshay tries to convince her that the tea is also healthy apart from being tasty. Sonakshi believes the tea to be tasty but is not convinced that so much tea is also good for health. Watch the video here:

Akshay pulls up a phone number through which the viewers can call and convince Sonakshi on the health benefits of Red Label tea. Of course the number takes you to an IVRS (interactive voice response system)!

I saw a Facebook ad promoting the same by asking me whether I’ve called Sonakshi and was driven to the Red Label India Facebook page when I clicked on it. The page is new but has an interesting statistic around it – 14,071 likes with 14,654 talking about this. This kind of phenomenon is possible when you have fans equal to the rate at which you are engaging but may never occur again with the growth of your fans eventually.

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That said, I wasn’t very convinced with the campaign though I prefer Red Label tea. The campaign doesn’t do much on Facebook and leaves many things to be desired.

Could the campaign have been better?

Firstly, the brand needs to make it clear what are they giving fans in return for convincing Sonakshi. This is being reflected in some of the comments on the wall where fans are asking if they would win a chance to meet the lead pair! The Terms & Conditions are displayed on a Facebook Note and does not mention the incentive for the fan. Some of the updates on the wall point to the fact that Sonakshi will call back if she is convinced!

Secondly, the campaign does not create a Facebook interaction. What is the point of creating a Facebook ad that leads to the brands Facebook wall only to inform you that you have to call up a number and that pretty much sums it up – the fan has no incentive to be glued onto the brands Facebook page.

A tweak around the campaign strategy to accommodate an app with some gamification, interactivity or plain old conversation with fans could have created wonders. Featuring the fan entries on the page and enabling them to be ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ could have made it even popular.

In comparison with a slightly similar campaign, ‘Katrina ka number, crown ke under‘ for promoting the mango-flavoured drink Slice, the Red Label convince Sonakshi campaign doesn’t seem quite convincing. The Katrina Slice campaign promised a date with Katrina as well as created a dedicated microsite to interact with her. The makers of the Red Label campaign can take note and probably build around this.

Nevertheless, the Red Label Facebook page is a treat for tea lovers with top-notch content posted on the wall. In fact, the content is more convincing about the health benefits of drinking tea. What do you think?