The much awaited Ceylon Tea Global Campaign, which faced obstacles due to delays in promotional activities and advertising issues, will be launched in September this year in Russia.
The traditional-based campaign using conventional media has faced obstacles due to bureaucratic bungling in tender procedures and procedural delays.
Promoting the sale of Tea Under the “Ceylon Tea Global Promotional Programme”, the Sri Lanka Tea Board had entered into an agreement with a private company on 06 November 2015.
The media company contact value was US $ 2.26 million or Rs. 328.42 million for activities relating to production and creativity with respect to the period 2015-2018.
By the end of the year 2017/2018 under review, a sum of Rs. 195.52 million had been spent thereon, government audit inspection revealed.
Due to failure in selecting a media institution in conjunction with execution of the said activity, the expected activities could not be fulfilled, it observed
As such, the creative part of the TV commercial had been completed by the said company by April 2016 though; the advertisement could not be aired even up to 31 August 2018
The normal tea advertising was costly and the Plantation Industries ministry will be resorting to use social media platforms, to get across to the younger generation.
Minister of Plantation Industries Navin Dissanayake noted that another reason for the delay was the debate on which media platform to use.
The global Ceylon tea promotion campaign will cover 12 key markets, starting in Russia and then the Ukraine, and followed Japan, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, the United States, Chile, Australia and Germany, he disclosed.
(LI)