The Campaign

In a fast paced country like India, men especially the working class are always on the go. The crowded trains or bus and scorching heat makes it difficult for them to stay Fresh. The HE on the go Waterless Facewash addressed this problem. This unconventional product needed an unconventional launch. For this, we announced the launch of a fake product in the market - ‘The Flying Basin’. A basin which was operated using a drone. People could call the flying basin and have water delivered to them at their footstep to wash their face in minutes. To make the campaign look more credible, a fake CEO, a design head and a tech head were brought were brought in the picture. The product details where shown on a microsite called www.flyingbasin.com. People could prebook their flying basins on the microsite even before its official launch. And all of this was a prank!

Creative Execution

The Flying Basin video was launch on 31st March, right before April fool’s day, so that the smarter audience will understand the reason behind its launch. A microsite which was a host of the launch video, a prebooking section for the audience where they could locate the nearest flying basin in their area, features of the product & details about the CEO was launched on the same day. People started sending their request to prebook the flying basin since day 1. With the inquisitiveness of the users increasing day by day, we finally revealed the secret. An on ground activity was conducted where in the users were informed that there is no such thing as a Flying Basin and that the HE on the go Waterless Facewash is all the people needed to look fresh anytime, anywhere.

The campaign reached out to more than 6.5 million people garnering more than 2.5 Million views. More than 5,000 flying basins were pre booked. The campaign video even got featured on TV - ‘NDTV news creative pick of the week’ and has also been covered by various digital publications such as Ad age, The Drum & Social Samosa.

The primary strategy was to announce the launch of a fake product in the market, which otherwise would look very fictional. The intent was to make the users believe that Flying Basin as a product does exist. Once this had been established, users were told that they don’t need a flying basin to wash their face anytime, anywhere.