SHARE THE LOAD

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleSHARE THE LOAD
BrandP&G INDIA
Product / ServiceARIEL MATIC
CategoryB01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
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
Hemant Shringy BBDO India Senior Creative Director - Copy
Sandeep Sawant BBDO India Senior Creative Director and Head of Art
Umma Saini BBDO India Group Head - Copy
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
Vikram Thurakhia BBDO India Account Director
Dimple Shetty BBDO India Planner
Kunal Matta BBDO India Account Executive
Hitesh Shah BBDO India Studio Manager
Abbas-Joy BBDO India Creative Copy
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 Ustudios Video Director
Ajay Tiwari Ustudios Video Producer

The Campaign

Ariel is a leading detergent brand in India, but it was suffering from loss of emotional equity and relevance. Specifically, consumers saw it as a brand ‘not for people like me’. The client brief was clear – get the attention of and engage our consumers around Ariel’s promise of ‘best stain removal in one wash so that anyone can do laundry’ to make the brand more relevant. Here we unearthed an interesting statistic: ‘87% of Indian men believe laundry is a woman's job’. Deeper analysis into this pointed us to an inequality embedded culturally in each and every Indian home… where women can be equal contributors to the family income, but the burden of household chores still lies on their shoulders. With this understanding Ariel decided to stand up for women’s equality at home with ‘Share the Load’ – a provocative social movement that exposed the inequality embedded culturally in each and every Indian home. But our challenge was to reach out to men and women in places where our message would create maximum impact as well as get talked about in media. Here is where we saw the opportunity to turn an ignored, but important part of the garment – the wash care label – into an advocate for gender-equality at home with Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad wash-care labels. It wasn’t just embraced by garment manufacturers, retailers and designers; it also caught the attention of the media who covered it and the message of gender equality at home behind it.

The Brief

Our goal was to drive relevance of Ariel. Most importantly, make women see the brand as a brand ‘for people like me’. A detailed research with Nielsen among our target group – urban women – pointed us to an inequality embedded in each and every Indian home. An inequality at home where household chores, including laundry was thought of as a woman’s job in spite of her working outside the home and contributing equally to household income.

Results

The Ariel #ShareTheLoad wash care label immediately grabbed the attention of people and media. • Leading clothing brands, manufacturers, retailers and designers embraced the label. • Influential Indians came out in support of the new wash care label and the message of equality at home behind it. • Not just that, it grabbed the attention of the media and people on social media. • Unaided Brand Awareness increased by 132% within the first month. • The campaign generated free-media worth USD 9.5 million • Millions of men pledged to ‘Share the Load’ across the country • On Facebook, engagement-rate went up a record 225%. • On Twitter #ShareTheLoad trended nationally with over 8 million impressions. • Sales went up by 60%.

Execution

We kicked off the movement with an ad that asked an important question – ‘why is laundry a woman’s job?’ This provocative message sparked conversation. But our challenge was to reach out to men and women in ways where our message would create maximum impact as well as get talked about in media. Here is where we saw the opportunity to turn an ignored, but important part of the garment – the wash care label – into an advocate for gender-equality at home with Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad wash-care labels. It wasn’t just embraced by garment manufacturers, retailers and designers; it also caught the attention of the media who covered it and the message of gender equality at home behind it.

The Situation

We needed to get the attention of and engage our consumers with Ariel’s promise to make the brand more relevant. We did this with #ShareTheLoad - a provocative social-movement that exposed the inequality embedded culturally in each Indian home. But our challenge was to reach out to men and women in places where our message would create maximum impact as well as get talked about in media. Here is where we saw the opportunity to turn an ignored, but important part of the garment – the wash care label – into an advocate for gender-equality at home for Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad.

The Strategy

The target audience for Ariel is the urban woman – the performance seeker. She is a woman for whom achieving perfection is key, be it in what she does in the office or at home with her household chores. She is the one who is responsible for doing the laundry and choosing Ariel as her detergent. While this may be so, there is an inequality embedded culturally in each and every Indian home that affects them… where women can be equal contributors to the family income, but the burden of household chores still lies on their shoulders. In this context, to make the brand more relevant to these women, Ariel spoke to both them and their husbands. It stood up against the inequality at home. Our strategy was to use PR as a vehicle to create a nation conversation and debate.