Title | LIFEBUOY GERM NASHINI |
Brand | UNILEVER |
Product / Service | LIFEBUOY |
Category | B06. Use of Events |
Entrant | MULLENLOWE LINTAS GROUP INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
Idea Creation | MULLENLOWE LINTAS GROUP INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
Idea Creation 2 | MULLENLOWE SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
Media Placement | MULLENLOWE LINTAS GROUP INDIA Mumbai, INDIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Nitin Sawant | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Group Creative Director |
Satendra Mhatre | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Associate Creative Director |
Sarvesh Raikar | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Executive Director |
Sagar Kapoor | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Chief Creative Officer |
Amer Jaleel | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Group Chairman & Chief Creative Officer |
Prathamesh Kulkarni | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Brand Services Director |
Dharal Goshalia | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Associate Vice President |
Vinay Vinayak | MullenLowe Singapore | Global Business Director |
Diya Sarkar | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Brand Services Manager |
Girish U | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Associate Creative Director |
Joybrato Dutta | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Unit Creative Director |
Savita Iyer | MullenLowe Lintas Group India | Associate Vice President |
Samir Singh | Unilever | Global Executive Vice President, Skin Cleansing |
Kartik Chandrasekhar | Unilever | Global Brand Vice President, Lifebuoy |
Madhurjya Banerjee | Unilever | Global Brand Director, Lifebuoy |
Guntas Randhawa | Unilever | Global Brand Director, Lifebuoy |
India, land of many festivals that are celebrated with fervor and euphoria. Durga Puja is a festival that celebrates the homecoming of goddess Durga. Sacred food (bhog) is at the heart of the festivities and is usually consumed with unclean hands. Lifebuoy identified a powerful opportunity to intervene during Durga Puja to ensure devotees had cleans hands before eating bhog and were educated on the importance of hand hygiene to prevent infections. A Germ Nashini (destroyer) was created and strategically placed at the heart of the festival celebrations across three cities. The message truly became the medium and vice versa.
Lifebuoy, the world’s largest hygiene soap been protecting people from infection causing germs and saving lives for over a century. The brand has been driving crucial education around handwashing as a life-saving habit through extensive on ground programs across the developing world. Despite this there is still widespread lack of awareness around hand hygiene and its role in preventing infections, especially in countries like India. How do you keep reminding people on a topic that’s boring and mundane for the average person? Food is an indispensable part of Indian festivals but is often consumed with unclean hands, exposing devotees to germs and illnesses. Lifebuoy explored the opportunity of using religious gatherings to drive education on the importance of handwashing, with two objectives: 1. Use Durga Puja, one of India’s largest festival as a platform to drive hand hygiene awareness 2. Make the message highly contextual to ensure receptivity and memorability
During the 10 day long Durga Puja festival, devotees come to worship the goddess and enjoy warm bhog (blessed food). How do we ensure millions of devotees attending Durga Puja clean their hands before eating bhog? Given the depth of devotion to goddess Durga, we realized that people would never ignore a message from the goddess herself. The strategy was to use the ‘blessing hand gesture’ of the goddess to symbolize the destruction of germs. Lifebuoy created the Germ Nashini (Destroyer). Designed in the form of the ‘goddess’s blessing gesture’, Germ Nashini used an apt metaphor of the goddess Durga who is the Destroyer of Evil. Devotees thronged to the Germ Nashini to place their hands in front of the goddess’s hand. The Germ Nashini sensed hands and dispensed hand sanitizer, leaving a blessing of germ protection.
There were 3 audiences that Lifebuoy wanted to attract through this installation: Devotees: The Germ Nashini was placed where the bhog was served ensuring the throng of devotees were directly targeted and no one ate bhog without cleaning their hands. A video was released on Dussehra, the most auspicious day of the festival. The hashtag #GermNashini soon gained momentum during the period of the festival. Media channels: Indian festivals gain a lot of attention from media outlets who cover events on key days. Germ Nashini as a result of its unique form and design stood out of the clutter of brands, catching media attention. Durga Puja organizers: Through this activation the aim was to catch the eye of Durga Puja organizers, who would appreciate the importance and commit to providing Germ Nashini every year to the devotees as a means to protect them from germs.
The activation was done in 3 big cities where the festival is celebrated by large numbers – Mumbai, Kolkata and Guwahati. Lifebuoy targeted 3 big pandals in each of these cities where large footfalls were ensured, a Germ Nashini was placed in each pandal at a strategic location just before the bhog distribution area. A video was released on 18th October 2018 on Youtube, Instagram and Twitter and was covered by multiple digital websites. Kajol, famous Indian celebrity and a follower of goddess Durga shared the activation video and message through her Twitter account. Indian festivals are covered extensively by local media like newspapers and Lifebuoy’s Germ Nashini attracted the attention of multiple regional and national dailies.
1. Reached over 2.3 million devotees with our message during the festival. 2. Covered by over 15 news channels & media publications. 3. Most of all caught the eye of Durga Puja event organizers who are keen to install the Germ Nashini next year in their own pandals