The Campaign

Many children in China bring lunchboxes to school and collect meals from the cafeteria. This offered us an opportunity to bring a physical message carrier already in children’s daily routine. We gave shape to a simple idea to build upon an ordinary lunchbox and transform it into the first interactive lunchbox that encourages children to practice oral hygiene after meals – the Extra Care Box. The care box was designed with an artwork that playfully changes with heat, revealing characters working together to clean their teeth. This fun activation both captures children’s attention and encourages them to open a built-in compartment and chew on a sugar-free gum after meals. This simple reminder helps improve children’s daily oral hygiene without interrupting their playtime.

Creative Execution

Through a partnership with one of the nation’s best illustrators and an award-winning product design studio, we build Extra’s Care Box. This custom designed lunchbox is made with temperature-sensitive ink, that allows the illustrations to change with the meal inside of it. Each morning, parents will pack the Extra Care Box, in their children’s backpack before sending them off to school. At lunchtime, students will use the Box to collect hot meals at the school cafeteria. Once the hot food comes in contact with the Box, the temperature-sensitive ink instantly alters the illustration to reveal a playful and engaging story. Characters on the Box are shown working together to clean teeth (after meals) — also leading the viewer to open the capsule that holds four pieces of Extra’s sugar-free gum. Our product design makes it easy for children to enjoy a meal and improve oral hygiene in one.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Our care box demo video launch received 5 million views in just three days. In one week, we reached 67 million audiences across China’s social media platforms and earned 1.4 million likes, comments and reposts, doubling the average ROI from previous campaigns. The Extra Care Box started an online conversation about children’s oral health – where parents proactively shared their experiences in helping children practice regular oral hygiene after meals. This showed that our care box resonated with parents and inspired them to influence behavior change in their children. The conversation even extended to professional dental organizations/clinics in China – earning reposts from 54 influencers altogether. Our WeChat account recruited 2,800 new followers in just a week after the launch of the video.