The Campaign

Horlicks is a family-nutrition brand by GlaxoSmithKline. In developing markets it helps mothers close their kids' nutrition gaps and fights "hidden hunger" (WHO term). But Horlicks is more than a good product - it is a brand with a grand purpose: to nourish the potential of children. In 2014 Horlicks brought this to life and went far beyond the category norm of functional benefit messaging: it launched the purpose driven Horlicks School Journey Initiative to give children access to an education they often lack and thus help them unleash their full potential. While projects on the ground make a tangible difference they also provide the powerful branded content for a digital centric campaign which included this interactive paid media banner campaign. The banners allowed users to experience the problem first hand - driving interest and increasing traffic to site. Horlicks changed the conversation and engaged with mothers like never before.

The Brief

Horlicks wanted to use its new digital and social media platforms earmarked to launch in 2014 to change the brand's conversation: from functional messaging to emotionally involving stories about the brand helping to fulfil the potential of children. And it wanted to link the brand to the topic of education - because: children's academic success is key for all mothers. With the Horlicks School Journey Initiative it would drive change, prove its purpose and, along the way, create powerful content. Interactive banners were seen as a great tool to engage the audience and drive them to the sites and content.

Creative Execution

The "Desert Journey Experience" is one of three banners in the digital campaign. The simple concept: Start with an impactful image and fact (57 million children around the world lack access to education - UN) to draw users in. Use this initial interest and engage them to take immediate action: take this child to school. Then let them experience the difficulties directly - by making the journey to the school difficult and long in an expandable banner format. In this case: the child's daily walk through arid mountains, dangerous wadis and across a desert - which surprisingly grows even longer on interaction. Along the way the user learns more and when finally delivering the child to school surely feels: this is all wrong. The perfect trigger to deliver the message about Horlicks changing it - combined with the direct link to the Horlicks School Journey Initiative page.

While a global purpose driven campaign, the Horlicks School Journey Initiative is designed to have local impact first. The story and content about a live project are meant to reach mothers in the same market. This strategy is working. As a result of the integrated digital campaign the Horlicks website saw a jump of astonishing +2147% visits after re-launch. Interestingly over 38% of all visits to the brand and product site were attracted by the story and content about the pilot project. Content engagement rates illustrate its power: organic reach of a single post 9.2% versus the average of 2-3%. In only 5 months (Oct14 to Feb15) over 35.6 million people engaged through Facebook, YouTube, the new website and of course the interactive banners. But most importantly: in conjunction with product campaigning this entirely new Horlicks story also yielded solid business results - volumes sales in Malaysia grew impressive 22%.

GSK and the Horlicks category team knew: action speaks louder than words. The approach chosen was to run local projects in key markets and develop content around these. Content that would populate the new owned social and digital channels the brand was launching. Content that would travel and drive earned media reach. Content that would have the power to attract mothers in each market and beyond - showing the brand at work based on its purpose and linking it to the theme of education. At the same time it was clear that additional, carefully planned and placed paid media needed to cut through and drive instant engagement as well as interest in the topic as well as Horlicks' role. Interactive banners were seen as an ideal tool to deliver the kind of experience needed to drive additional traffic.