TOUCH THE PICKLE

TitleTOUCH THE PICKLE
BrandP&G INDIA
Product / ServiceWHISPER
EntrantBBDO INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Entrant Company BBDO INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Advertising Agency BBDO INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Production Company RED ICE FILMS Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Josy Paul BBDO India Chief Creative Officer
Rajdeepak Das BBDO India Executive Creative Director
Hemant Shringy BBDO India Senior Creative Director - Copy
Sandeep Sawant BBDO India Senior Creative Director and Head of Art
Balakrishna Gajelli BBDO India Creative Director - Art
Ajai Jhala BBDO India Chief Executive Officer
Rajat Mendhi BBDO India Vice President - Planning
Sidheshwar Sharma BBDO India Vice President - Account Management
Rahul Chandwani BBDO India Account Director
Naina-Dimple Shetty BBDO India Planner
Hitesh Shah BBDO India Studio Manager
Vivek Unnikrishnan BBDO India Copywriter
Malvika Srivastava BBDO India Art Director
Phiroze Marolia BBDO India Senior Account Executive
Venkatesh-Shankar BBDO India Graphic Artist
Rajeev-Sameet BBDO India Graphic Artist
Shimit Amin RED ICE Films Film Director
Gary Grewal RED ICE Films Film Producer
Karan Sharma RED ICE Films Associate Producer
Hanif RED ICE Films Music Artist

The Campaign

Whisper is a leading feminine hygiene brand in India. Our task was to drive relevance by reasserting a new “contemporary conversation” about periods with young urban women, in a socially-interesting, fame-generating way. Research pointed us to deep rooted period taboos still alive in the 21st century that feed a culture of shame leading to young women growing up with a disgraceful sense of self. Taboos like not entering the kitchen, and even touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear they would rot with their touch. ‘Touch the Pickle’ was a movement by Whisper that bravely took on the culture of shame propagated through period taboos. Supported with strategically developed TV-spots, branded-content, celebrity endorsements and activations across key touch points. In doing so, Whisper created a conversation that got over 2.9 million women to participate and generated over USD 6.1 million in free-media and publicity.

Success of the Campaign

The campaign got the attention of and engaged with young urban women: • The campaign achieved 73% unaided recall. • It generated free-media worth USD 6.1 million. • Over 2.9 million women participated and pledged to ‘Touch the Pickle’. • Over 1.9 million views on YouTube for the ‘Touch the Pickle’ video. • Facebook engagement rate was 959 Index. • Whisper’s Share of Voice grew from 21.0% TO 91.2%.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

To kick start the movement we needed to reach out to young urban women and spark a national conversation and debate about period taboos. So we started with a TV spot that asked young women to boldly break period-taboos by touching the pickle. This provocative message got the nation’s attention. Bollywood-celebrities and real-life women achievers stepped forward to spread the message. CNN-IBN, a leading news-channel hosted a show called #LetsTalkPeriod. Radio-Jockeys across major cities conducted live debates and Q&A sessions. Aditi Gupta, founder Menstrupedia, took to the Ted talks stage. Comedians and women from different walks of life created compelling content to inspire young women and fuel conversations and debate on social media.

The objective for us were… 1. Get the attention of and engage with our target audience 2. Drive relevance and as a result its sales The insight for the Whisper campaign came from extensive research that pointed us to deep rooted period taboos still alive in the 21st century; taboos that feed a culture of shame leading to young women growing up with a disgraceful sense of self. Taboos like not entering the kitchen, and even touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear they would rot with their touch. In challenging the culture of shame propagated by archaic period taboos, we believed Whisper could not only find a deeper relevance but also impact the lives of millions of young women. Thus was born ‘Touch the Pickle’.