The Campaign

Primary grade students in rural schools still use black-slate and chalk sticks to write with. After frequently writing and wiping the slate with their bare hands, it is common for the chalk powder to get smeared all over their hands. So Savlon introduced Savlon Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks - special chalk sticks infused with soap granules. These could be used to write just like regular chalk sticks, but the chalk powder accumulated on kids' hands acted as cleansing soap when their hands came in contact with water. This simple innovation automatically turned washing hands with soap into an everyday habit without requiring any extra effort from children.

Creative Execution

Under Savlon’s ongoing school outreach initiative - ‘Healthy India Mission’, over 100 rural schools were identified across India where the soap-infused chalk sticks were distributed for free. These chalks sticks were designed to write just like regular chalk sticks and formulated keeping all food grade safety requirements in mind. It has gone through stringent tests for safety and complies to IS 2694 (White Chalk), IS 4222 (Coloured Chalk). The idea was to inculcate proper hand hygiene with minimum effort required from children. The packaging of the boxes was kept fresh, fun and interesting enough for children to accept and adopt, with easy-to-follow instructions. Following widespread social media coverage and a huge demand from general public and NGOs, for the second phase, a pan-India distribution model has been planned in collaboration with some of the largest NGOs in the country.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

• The world’s largest provider of mid-day meals in schools – ‘Akshaya Patra’ has approached us to distribute these chalk sticks and reach more than a million kids every day. • These chalk sticks have helped induce the habit of hand-washing with soap in more than 150,000 children so far, spanning 100 schools in India. • 79 newspapers publicized this innovation. • India’s No.1 Hindi news channel featured the story at prime-time. • This simple idea sparked conversation about hand-washing with a reach of 5.1 million on Twitter and 4.3 million on Facebook in just the first 4 days. • It reached 5,105,340 parents via parental blogs and micro-communities online. • This generated a large demand from schools and NGOs. • This simple innovation has helped in Savlon’s re-launch in the country as a major player in the health & hygiene category.

Being a health & hygiene brand in India, Savlon’s primary task was to address one of the most critical issues prevalent in rural India – poor hand hygiene. Kids were at risk the most, so we decided to reach them, making them aware about good hand hygiene. We were aiming for a behavioral change, so our solution had to be uncomplicated, cost-effective and at the same time certified safe for children to adopt.