Results and Effectiveness

21,000 filled pages received from Kids. 6.6 million people reached by the campaign. Millward Brown tracking score on “Dirt is good” Equity measure improved from 14 to 25. Brand Appeal Scores for Surf Excel improved 40% ‘Lapse rate’ for the brand fell to its lowest level ever in the last two years. Trial rate increased by 16%, to reach a new high. The concept of User-Generated Content came for the first time to hinterland India’s regional press media. The medium became a consumer canvas with kids working on the actual news page.

Creative Execution

A full page of one of India’s largest newspapers was stripped of its content and published with blank lines and spaces. Kids were challenged to tear out the page and author and illustrate it with news of their world, under headlines relevant to them, resonating with the ‘dirt is good’ proposition. Three winning entries were digitally reproduced, maintaining the editorial and pictorial integrity of the young journalist and published as actual full pages one on each day over the Christmas weekend of 2009. The winning pages also featured the young journalist along with his mother, with a write up about their life. 3300 sq.cms of paid reminder advertising and 7920 sq.cms of earned editorial space supported the young journalist campaign, building awareness and keeping the excitement alive. We went on-ground to 180 schools and distributed copies of the blank news paper, lending additional impetus to campaign participation.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In an inflationary economy, India’s laundry market faced rampant down-trading. Surf Excel, a premium detergent, was losing consumers to cheaper powders. The brand needed to retain its consumers by strengthening bonding with its equity philosophy of “Dirt is good” which implied that dirt is an inherent part of child expression. The Young Indian mother who dotes on her Child is our consumer For her, Surf Excel was a dirt remover, not an ally in empowering her children. Mothers don’t get swayed by advertisers. But they can’t ignore their kids. We gave kids a credible platform to deliver ‘dirt is good’ to mothers in their own words and perspectives - the power of the press. Surf Excel would creatively leverage the pester power of its key influencer to uniquely articulate ‘Dirt is good’. It would be an opportunity for our mother’s child to write for one of India’s largest read newspapers.