The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023–2024
Taj Mahal Tea lets monsoon rain play a giant santoor — 'Megh Santoor' wins Spikes GP
A rain-powered billboard-santoor at Vijayawada station performs Raag Megh Malhar whenever it rains — Guinness record, Spikes Music GP.
Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea (Hindustan Unilever)
What it had to solve
Taj Mahal Tea had spent 40 years championing Indian classical music, and tea drinking in India is inseparable from the monsoon. Instead of advertising that bond, the brand wanted to perform it in public — with rain as both the muse and the musician.
How it works
Taj Mahal Tea's long-running romance with Indian classical music had lasted four decades, and tea is never more Indian than during the monsoon. The brand wanted to express that bond in a way that felt like the culture itself rather than like advertising.
The answer was Megh Santoor — a combination of 'megh' (rainclouds) and 'santoor', the Indian stringed instrument. Ogilvy India built a billboard-sized santoor outside Vijayawada Railway Station and designed it to play only when it rained, activated through the monsoon months of August to October 2023.
The mechanism was deliberately physical: each mallet carried a rainwater container above strings tuned to Raag Megh Malhar, and when rain filled a container the water drained out, sending the mallet down to strike the strings. Activated through the monsoon months of August to October, the instrument played the raag of the rains whenever it rained — the muse became the artist.
The installation measured 209 square metres and earned a Guinness World Record as the largest environmentally interactive billboard on 10 September 2023. It later won the Music Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2024 and a Gold at LIA 2024, and it remains a reference for making the medium of the message as real as the message itself.
Why it lands
- Rain performing the rain-raag made the brand's 40-year classical music story physically true instead of merely claimed.
- The build took months of planning and testing with no guarantee the rain would cooperate — the agency treated it as an experiment, so the first live performance was the real proof.
- Placing it at Vijayawada Railway Station, one of the brand's biggest markets, put the performance where commuters already stop for tea.
- Because each rainfall improvised a new version, no two performances were alike — the campaign could never feel like a repeat.
What it did
The 209-square-metre billboard was certified by Guinness World Records as the world's largest environmentally interactive billboard on 10 September 2023. The work took the Music Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2024 and a Gold at the London International Awards 2024.
What you can take
A brand's oldest association can become a new product of attention when the medium itself performs it: letting rain play the instrument made the idea proof, not promise — nature did the campaign.
Since then
Megh Santoor ran until the monsoons faded in October 2023 and became a flagship example of environmentally interactive OOH, collecting a Guinness World Record, the Spikes Asia 2024 Music Grand Prix and a LIA 2024 Gold in Billboard. Its case record is still cited as proof that a seasonal, natural trigger can turn a brand heritage story into a public instrument rather than an advertisement.
Sources
- Brooke Bond Taj Mahal & Ogilvy create largest environmentally interactive billboard
- VML Melbourne and AIRBAG score five Grands Prix at Spikes Asia 2024
- Megh Santoor — LIA 2024 winners entry (Gold, Billboard: Innovative Use of Billboard)
- Megh Santoor — LIA 2024 winners entry (Bronze, Music & Sound: Experiential Use of Music & Sound)
- Havas Worldwide India and Ogilvy India's Campaigns Win Gold at London International Awards 2024
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