The Campaign

Nestle decided to adopt the cause of girl child education by partnering with an equally passionate and sincere advocate - Project Nanhi Kali, an NGO committed to educating 100,000 girls every year. Together with Nanhi Kali, Nestle launched the campaign #EducateTheGirlChild with a special kind of donation - the iconic tag lines of their most popular brands. Maggi Noodles, Kit Kat, and Nescafe adorned new packaging to take #EducateTheGirlChild right into people's kitchens. Maggi went from '2-minute Noodles' to '2 minutes for Education', 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' was replaced with 'No Break from Education' and Nescafe said 'It all starts with Education' in stead of its usual 'It all starts with Nescafe.' Project Nanhi Kali's logo was added to the pack as well. 100 million packs were changed and distributed across India, turning carriers of food into effective and inspiriting carriers of hope.

Creative Execution

The tag lines were changed on a 100 million packs of Maggi Noodles, Kit Kat and Nescafe. Maggi went from '2-minute Noodles' to '2 minutes for Education', 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' was replaced with 'No Break from Education' and Nescafe said 'It all starts with Education' in stead of its usual 'It all starts with Nescafe.' The new packs also prominently featured Project Nanhi Kali's credentials and the call to action - #EducateTheGirlChild. The special edition packs were distributed across all retail channels all over India - from small stores to supermarkets - over a period of 3 months.

Results

128% increase in donations towards Project Nanhi Kali for girl child education. 37% increase in school enrolments at Nanhi Kali's partner schools in the most severely affected areas of India. Supporting the futures of 20 million girls.

Nestle changed the tag lines on 100 million packs of three leading brands in India - Maggi Noodles, Kit Kat, and Nescafe. Instead of their usual brand promise, these tag lines encouraged people to support an NGO for Girl Child Education. “2-minute noodles” changed to “2 minutes for Education,” “Have a break, have a Kit Kat” became “No break from Education”, etc. A clear call to action was printed on the pack asking people to log on to the NGO's website and donate. We thus turned the products’ pack themselves into a direct medium, reaching millions of kitchens across India.

Our target audience was India's high-income urbanites. People who live with plenty and can easily forget the disturbing reality of the underprivileged majority. Traditional cause-related marketing has earned a bad reputation in their eyes due to lack of transparency and the perception that brands only support causes to further their own agendas. Project Nanhi Kali's data showed that mainstream advertising and mailers seeking donations had less than 2% response rate. Which is why it was important for Nestle to have a direct conversation with potential donors in a way that had never been done before. Changing the tag lines of a 100 million packs of the country's most loved brands took the cause right into people's kitchens in a way that they couldn't ignore. Reinventing its core brand properties was also Nestle's way of showing people that a way that they couldn't ignore.