THE IMMUNITY CHARM

Short List
TitleTHE IMMUNITY CHARM
BrandMINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, AFGHANISTAN
Product / ServiceANALOGUE WEARABLE
CategoryA09. Public Sector
EntrantMcCANN INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation McCANN INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation 2 McCANN HEALTH Mumbai, INDIA
Media Placement McCANN HEALTH New Delhi, INDIA
Production McCANN INDIA Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Prasoon Joshi McCann Worldgroup India Chief Creative Officer
Prateek Bhardwaj McCann Worldgroup India National Creative Director
Harshit jain McCann Health Senior Vice President, Country Manager (India) & Marketing Director (Asia Pacific)
Soumya Shiva Nagabhushan McCann Worldgroup India Creative Director
Dan Curucci McCann Global Health Senior Technical Advisor
Vaibhava Bhatnagar McCann Worldgroup India Creative Team Leader
Kamya Elawadhi McCann Health Account Director
Urvashi Das McCann Worldgroup India Creative Resource

The Campaign

The immunity charm comprises colored beads, with each bead being code for a specific vaccine. On every vaccine, doctors add the corresponding bead to the bracelet, creating a data bank on the child's wrist. Strong traditional biases and wide spread illiteracy were the main hurdles. The Immunity Charm takes care of both as it is rooted in tradition and requires no reading or writing on the part of the parents. And empowers doctors in Afghanistan with real usable information.

Creative Execution

Doctors and Healthcare professionals were given their own Immunity Charm Kits and required just a one hour training program. With each kit a doctor is equipped to take care of 50 children's Immunization records. We used training videos and manuals to excite doctors about the Immunity Charm. The doctors in turn became the medium for our message. Once they tied the Immunity Charm to the infant, the bracelet itself became our medium to an entire community. Reminding them of the power of immunization in their own traditions.

The immunity charm has helped doctors create real enthusiasm in Afghanistan about maintaining immunization history. Seeing the success of the pilot program the Government will now be extending it to other provinces as well.

The Immunity Charm is a medium in itself as it communicates to Afghanistan audiences that are traditionally biased against vaccination. Seen on Afghan new-borns' wrists, the Immunity Charm is an outdoor ambient message that reminds parents of their vaccination schedules. At the same time, it carries messages to doctors about the immunization history of a child.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The strategy was to incentivize Afghans to maintain data on vaccination. In a society with traditional biases against vaccination, this was no easy task. The Immunity Charm used another Afghan tradition to tackle traditional biases - an evil eye bracelet that is put on Afghan new borns. By codifying the beads on the bracelet, doctors have created an incentive for Afghan mothers to maintain immunization history. On every vaccine given, the doctor adds a specific colored bead to the bracelet, building up the immunization history data on the child's wrist. This data can be easily interpreted by other doctors when they see the bracelet. The key target audiences were doctor, healthcare professionals and parents.