The Campaign

Heart disease is the No.1 killer of Indian women and Saffolalife wanted to address this unspoken cause of women’s heart-health. Since men are the primary decision-makers in Indian households, women put forth his needs above their own. Whereas, when it comes to her health, she seeks hand-holding from her husband. Thus, we had to sensitize the man and enable him to accompany her for a cholesterol test on World-Heart-Day (WHD). However, this year WHD fell on Monday-a working day. Amidst a busy work schedule how could a man step out from office to accompany her? We decided to put big business corporations on the frontline and hold them accountable for the lives of its employees & their families. With support from 24 corporates like PepsiCo, Colgate & KPMG we inspired half-a-million people to take the first to #ProtectHerHeart.

The Brief

Research proved that contrary to popular belief that men are more prone to heart diseases, women’s heart is at equal risk. The objective was to consolidate Saffola’s position as the heart-care-expert by championing this unspoken cause of women’s heart-health. Insight: Men are the primary decision makers in Indian households. Women therefore put-forth his needs above their own. Even in health matters, she seeks hand-holding from her husband and depends on him to step out of the house and visit clinics. Idea: Sensitizing the man towards her heart-health and enable him to accompany her for a cholesterol test on World-Heart-Day (WHD).

Creative Execution

Using the emotional route on TV we seeded the thought of increasing risk of heart diseases among women. A research study commissioned by Saffolalife on this subject was published and propagated across several publications and online platforms. A week prior to World-Heart-Day, we tied up with India’s leading newspaper and split the news run basis organizations rather than cities. We surprised CEOs of top-corporates by sending them personalised copies followed by an emotional appeal right below the mast head requesting them to grant leave to employees on WHD. We urged employees to sign an online petition which generated an impactful personalized leave application which was sent to their respective HR, flooding their inbox. Social media created a massive multiplier as celebrities joined the movement and provided support in the form of tweets & Facebook posts. We went further to walk-the-talk by setting up 700 free cholesterol test centers across India.

Our initiative caused a huge shift in the perception about women’s heart health and people started taking action. In a span of just 25 days, we received: a. Half a million registrations for the free cholesterol test b. 23000+ online registrations for the free test on our microsite c. 4500+ petitions received from employees and shared with their HR teams from companies like Pepsi, Tata, Colgate, KPMG & Edelweiss etc. d. 24 corporate houses partnered with us to mark the quantum of the cause Saffolalife initiated The movement inspired half-a-million Indian women to take the first step towards a healthier heart. We saw a healthy spurt in brand’s imagery scores as well: a) “ Good for Heart” imagery score for Saffola grew from 44% in July’14 to 58% in Oct’14 b) Spontaneous awareness increased from 77% in July’14 to 83% in Oct’14 Social engagement grew by 35% with digital platforms delivering 8.1million impressions. Organic PR went abuzz with free celebrity endorsements and we garnered earned media worth $1.5 million in less than a month.

Big Opportunity: This year, WHD happened to fall on Monday - a working day, unlike previous years when only the last Sundays of September were observed. Amidst a busy work schedule how could the man step out of the office to accompany her? This bottleneck was converted into a big opportunity by us through a unique media intervention. Core-Strategic-Thought: Influence decision makers of organization to influence the decision makers of households. We created a movement that put big business corporations on the frontline and held them accountable for the lives of its employees & their families Communication Strategy: We approached the HR heads of companies across India through mass petitions filed by their own company employees, urging them to let them mark their attendance where it matters the most on World Heart Day, at cholesterol test centres with their wives and mothers.