The Campaign

For our message to cut across, we created a social experiment, with an expectant mother in a remote village in India. Our team spent weeks documenting her everyday (not revealing the real reason why we were covering her life) and making the film authentic and real. We asked her dreams and aspirations for her child to be. Would it be a girl or a boy? The name, her description of her child, physical features etc. We then found a child that matched her description and set up the mother-to-be for a big surprise where she received a special message from her ‘future child’ thanking her for the various good things she did for her, along with the life-saving habit of handwashing at key moments during the first 28 days of her life. This child’s emotional message and the mother’s reaction were showcased in an exceptionally powerful piece of film content.

Execution

We had to make sure that our message touched each every one of our audience. For that we… • Targeted policy makers at the UN to influence the SDGs vote: We premiered ‘Future Child’ at a high-level event in New York during the UN General Assembly week. • Took part in the opening of the 70th UN General Assembly, taking the opportunity to talk about the importance of neonatal hygiene to global policy makers. • Moved swiftly to get the urban affluent to start paying attention to the message & evangelize it. • Premiered the film amongst pregnant women. India’s top bloggers & the press who were addressed at the end of the screening, then took over. • Reached the affected in media dark India - We took our message from our ‘FutureChild’ to hundreds of remote villages in media dark India through a 'Traveling Cinema.’

• The campaign went viral garnering an unprecedented PR reach of 890 million people, €1.1mn (Earned PR). • Using Digital, Cinema, Direct to Home (DTH) the message was spread among 190million people. • Through a first of a kind ‘Traveling Cinema’ reached 4,00,000 rural media dark people across 400 villages. • The campaign got UN to amend SDG (Goal6.2) in April’16 and include a handwashing indicator to measure access to handwashing facilities. • Marketing Guru David Aaker acknowledged HelpAChildReach5 campaign as world’s best branded social program ever • Brand Equity scores reached highest ever in last3years. • Protects effectively from germs” scores moved to highest ever. • Increase in ‘suitable for family’. Increase in ‘brand I trust more than other brands’. • 17%increase in ‘Lifebuoy cares for society (Digital Preview). • Lifebuoy saw an increase in Volume Market Share by 60 bps at an all India level.

The Situation

We created a powerful film to showcase that ‘The First 28 Days Can Help a Child Reach 5’. We had to bring under 5 deaths in the forefront of all discussions; and PR helped us achieve that popularity. Our campaign created widespread impact, not just in India but resonated internationally despite the country specific nature of our creative. We got an unprecedented PR reach of 890 million people, €1.1mn (Earned PR). This helped swing policy votes with the policy makers at United Nations, and got the world talking about the tragedy of child mortality amongst under 5s.

The Strategy

To make REAL impact, our message had to appeal to 3 different audiences in a deeply emotional way: 1. Rural pregnant/new mothers who don’t think/know handwashing could prevent neonatal deaths. 2. Privileged class who could potentially evangelize on the role of hygiene in saving neonatal lives. 3. Policy makers who didn’t see handwashing (hygiene) as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. We needed one voice to cut through these varying audiences. So our approach hinged on the insight that: ‘It’s difficult to ignore a request from a child, let alone, an unborn one.’