TOUCH THE PICKLE

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleTOUCH THE PICKLE
BrandP&G INDIA
Product / ServiceWHISPER
CategoryA02. Corporate Responsibility
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 sanitary napkin brand in India that believes women can be unstoppable even on their period days. However, it was losing relevance amongst young urban women. 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 not touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear they would rot with their touch. ‘Touch the Pickle’ was a social 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, activations and partnerships designed to generate media interest and conversations, Whisper inspired young women to speak up and challenge period taboos. In doing so, Whisper created a national conversation that got over 2.9 million women to participate and generated over USD 6.1 million in free-media and publicity while growing key brand relevance parameters and sales.

The Brief

Our goal was to drive relevance of Whisper by reasserting a new “contemporary conversation” about periods with young urban women, in a socially-interesting, fame-generating way. A detailed research with IPSOS amongst our target group – young urban women – 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 not touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear they would rot with their touch.

Results

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%.

Execution

We needed to reach out to young urban women and spark a national conversation about period taboos. Here each element was designed to provoke the attention of the media and create advocacy. 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 draw in the audiences and spread the message. CNN-IBN, a leading news channel hosted a show called #LetsTalkPeriod. Radio-Jockeys across major cities conducted live debates. 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 to come forth and break taboos.

The Situation

Whisper is a leading sanitary napkin brand in India that believes women can be unstoppable even on their period days. However, it was losing relevance amongst young urban women. Research pointed us to the force stopping young women – it wasn’t periods, but the culture of shame passed on through generations by archaic period taboos. In challenging this culture of shame, we believed Whisper could find a deeper relevance as well as impact the lives of millions of young women. Thus was born ‘Touch the Pickle’ – a social-movement that harnessed the power of PR to create a national conversation.

The Strategy

In our research amongst young urban women aged between 16 to 24, we realised that deep rooted period taboos continue to prevail and feed a culture of shame that holds them back from doing most of the things in life. Whisper as a brand that stands for the emancipation of women decided to challenge the culture of shame propagated through period taboos. Thus was born the ‘Touch the Pickle’ movement.