Insight
Saffola is one of the foremost names in heart care in India. Saffolalife is a not for profit banner under Saffola which has led the heart care movement in the country through several campaigns. World Heart Day (WHD) which falls on September 29 every year is a time when this brand makes Indians wake up and take note of their heart health using disruptive media campaigns.
Over the last two years with increasing competition in the heart healthy oils space, Saffola’s growth rate was on a decline and also “Good for Heart” Brand imagery scores. It was imperative for Saffola to re-establish its superiority and expertise in the crowded heart health space with a thought leadership-driven campaign idea.
Research showed that contrary to the most popular belief in India that men are more prone to heart diseases than women, it was found that a woman’s heart was equally at risk and was the number one cause of death in women than any other causes. Saffolalife recognised that ignorance of this grim fact was primarily because in India women’s heart health never got the focus it deserved.
In India, majorly males are the bread winners of the family. Women therefore always put forth their man’s needs before her. Even her health needs take a backseat in relentlessly and selflessly providing for her family’s unending needs.
How could Saffolalife overcome this prevalent socio-cultural barrier to raise awareness towards women’s heart health and also enable women to act towards it?
Strategy
When it comes to fulfilling her own needs, especially on health front, a woman finds herself emotionally dependent on her support system, primarily her husband. She seeks hand-holding just as she does that for him and others in the family.
Saffolalife therefore strategically embarked upon sensitising the man of the house towards her heart health and enable him with right means to take the desired action of accompanying her for the heart health assessment test, a blood test.
This year, WHD happened to be a Monday, a working day unlike previous years when only Sundays of September were declared as WHD. Amidst a busy work schedule how could the man step out of the office to take her woman to the test centre? This bottleneck was converted into a big opportunity by Madison Media through a unique media intervention.
The core strategic thought was to influence the decision-makers of the organisations, to influence the decision-makers of the households into action.
The Human Resources (HR) Department of any organisation reserves the right to grant privileged leaves to its employees. Madison Media tapped into the HR Heads of Companies across India through Mass Petitions filed by their own company employees, urging HR to let them mark their attendance where it matters the most on World Heart Day, at blood test centres with their wives and mothers.
Strategic Approach:
• Sensitise - create conversations around women’s heart health.
• Enable & Amplify: Create a mass movement with petitions appealing for a time-off from office, converting intent into action and partner with top corporate houses to seek support from who’s who of the corporate world in spreading further awareness, fuelling the cause among men.
• Facilitate Action: Walk the talk by sponsoring free cholesterol tests across India.
Execution
• Sensitize:
TVC - Using the emotional route the agency seeded the thought in men of the increasing risk of heart diseases among women. Using the principles of video equivalency, it reached the online consumers too.
Print & Digital Editorials – Research Study commissioned by Saffolalife on this subject was published and propagated across several publications and online platforms to sensitise and spread awareness in men.
Cinema- The cause also found support from the film distribution fraternity with cinema halls across the country running the campaign pro bono.
• Enable & Amplify:
HR Supplement - Tied up with the most read HR supplement in the country, Times Ascent having a circulation of over 10 lakh copies. 50 copies were even personalised with addressable names of HR Heads and Top honchos of 25 blue chip companies requesting them to grant their employees time off on September 29 to take their wives and mothers for the Saffolalife sponsored cholesterol test.
Online Petition – Promoted online and in Times Ascent which upon signing, sent out a mailer to HR Head urging to grant time-off.
Social Media - Created a massive multiplier as celebrities joined the movement and provided support in form of tweets and messages on Twitter and Facebook.
Mobile – As the key enabler to drive participation via a toll-free number.
Earned Media – The efforts resulted in earned media coverage worth $1.5m across media.
Saffolalife World Heart Day Microsite was the central engine binding the campaign together – a repository of petitions and relevant content.
Results
1. Growth in Brand’s imagery Scores:
- “ Good for Heart” imagery score for Saffola grew from 44% in July’14 to 58% in Oct’14 (source: Nielsen India)
- Spontaneous awareness increased from 77% in July’14 to 83% in Oct’14 (source: Nielsen India).
2. Overwhelming participation for the cause from across India:
- 4.45 Lac missed calls & 3.47 unique calls received in span of 25 days of the campaign period
- 23,000+ online registrations for test happened through the Microsite.
- 4,500+ petitions received from employees and shared with their HR teams from companies like TSC, HDFC, Airtel etc.
- 24 corporate houses partnered with us to mark the quantum of the cause Saffolalife initiated.
3. Conversion rate for consumers who send an SMS to actually undergoing the blood test shot up from 10% Last year to 29% this year.
4. Campaign achieved huge audience pull through social media:
- 35% growth in engagement rate on Facebook
- 8.1 million total video reach across digital platforms
- 6 million+ timelines deliveries on Twitter
- Average video completion rate: 20%.