Background

At the best of times, how do you get people to wash their hands? WHO hadn't cracked it. Neither had the school system, our mothers, or even Disney. Not until Covid-19 came along. Never has there been a time in modern history where we’ve all been so bombarded by advice about washing our hands. For Safeguard – the dominant anti-bacterial soap brand in the Philippines – it was hard to imagine what more the brand could say about handwashing that Filipinos hadn’t already seen or heard from government advisories to Tik Tok videos. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE: Create the biggest buzz for Safeguard around the importance of handwashing during Global Handwashing Day (Oct. 15), which is the biggest awareness opportunity for a soap brand to own.

Describe the creative idea

THE IDEA There’s nothing like a bit of reverse psychology to get people to see things differently. Our idea was to look at things from a germ’s perspective, and have them champion half-assed handwashing to compel Filipinos to re-evaluate their “pwede na” (“that’s good enough or that’ll do) habits. HOW IT WAS BROUGHT TO LIFE We decided to tap into popular culture loved by Filipinos - Pinoy rap. And introduced the Philippine’s first rapper influenzah (influencer): FRED D’ GERM. In his debut single, he gives a loud, obnoxious rap performance advocating the “benefits” of improper handwashing. The performance culminates in an epic battle between germs and Safeguard, represented by legendary Pinoy rapper – Gloc 9. They trade jabs in lyrical form, with Gloc-9 delivering a ruthless rebuttal to Fred's show of bravado and emerging victorious after emphasising the importance of practicing SafeWash with Safeguard.

Describe the strategy

CULTURAL INSIGHT: The reliance on “good enough” handwashing Over 80-90% of Filipino adults were revealed to wash their hands with just water, or use alcohol sanitisers in lieu of handwashing, in spite of repeated reminders. Most of these improper handwashing behaviours were 100% deliberate and intentional – they didn’t arise due to water scarcity or a lack of access to soap, but due to complacency. It’s the Filipino ‘pwede na’ or ‘that’s good enough” “that’ll do” mentality at work. Safeguard needed Filipinos to realise how vulnerable they remain to germs when they abided by the ‘pwede na’ mentality for handwashing. OUR STRATEGY: Flipping Safeguard’s “enemies” into unlikely allies Who better to champion lazy handwashing, but germs themselves? Our strategy was to jolt Filipinos out of their complacency by showing them that their behaviour made them allies to germs.

Describe the execution

At the heart of the campaign was a 2-min music video, with Fred advocating the “benefits” of improper handwashing. To create it, we swapped bars with the country’s most prolific rapper, Gloc-9 creating lyrics about improper handwashing: • Wisik Wisik Man (Mr Sprinkle Sprinkle) • Punas Punas Gang (Wipe it, Wipe-it-Gang) • Miss Hugas Bilis (Miss Fast Wash) • Mr Tissue Boy Like any music launch, we turned it into an event: We seeded the campaign in the week leading up to Fred D’ Germ‘s debut into the hip-hop scene, with celebrity KOLs. We served up teasers, mirroring the way hit songs are released digitally. "Hugas Na Rin 'Yan" (“That’s as good as washing!”) dropped midnight on Youtube/Facebook. It was made available on Spotify and Apple Music, putting handwashing on people's playlists everywhere. The fun continued with fliptop (Filipino rap) battles culminating in a final showdown on Global Handwashing Day.

Describe the outcome

The campaign put Safeguard in the hearts and minds of the nation. We garnered astronomical attention and engagement • Fred’s music video was viewed over 25 million times on social platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) • We trended as one of the most watched ads in October 2020 on the APAC YouTube Ads Leaderboard • The campaign was picked up by major online news outlets in the Philippines, including the nation’s leading newspaper Manila Times, and industry media Adobo Magazine and Campaign Asia And strengthened handwashing leadership for Safeguard • Safeguard became the #1 soap brand associated with safe handwashing, with 90% of respondents naming the brand as being the most effective in communicating the importance of handwashing. • Within the first month of the campaign, we saw handwashing habits steadily improve: Filipinos choosing to wash their hands with anti-bacterial soap and water doubled from 32% to 64%.