Hamam's undifferentiated narrative and depreciating product quality had ripped the brand of its ruling position in the heart of moms in Tamil Nadu (Indian state).

Task: Capture a 16 year decline & win back brand love.

Though on the back foot, the soap still had a solid heritage of being a trusted family member and natural product handed down generations.We decided to infuse life into this bystander and give it a purpose to wake up to each morning. The client had done their bit by overhauling the product, our objective was to find a way to bring the brand to forefront of the mother-daughter relationship and find its way back into the household.

Objectives

- Reinstate naturals credentials

- Build ownership on skin protection

- Win back brand love measures

- Refresh and Redeem itself in the eyes of the new-age Tamil Mothers.

We used Hamam’s core strength of Neem & it’s heritage, to elevate the meaning of protection beyond the world of skin and body.

We partnered new-age Tamil moms who wanted their daughters to be able to chase their ambitions and explore the outside world without any inhibitions of beauty OR social restrictions; unlike their own repressed childhood.

The Idea: #GoSafeOutside – a movement encouraging and partnering mothers in their pursuit to raise a braver generation.

We revisited the brand positioning.

FROM - Wisdom of neem TO - Power of 100% Pure Neem Oil

FROM - Undifferentiated claims TO - Tangible protection from dirt, dust and pollution

FROM - A basic hygiene narrative TO - A counter culture stance of inspiring and empowering girls to step out bravely

AND

FROM - TVCS on Brand Speak TO - Brand Experience around the #GoSafeOutside philosophy

Our assumption that Tamil mothers are traditional and conservative had blinded us to the progressive mindset of today’s Tamil mothers. In a repressive, patriarchal society like India, they were already teaching good touch-bad touch, getting motorbikes for their daughters, telling them not to worry about public harassment etc.

She was no longer the seeker of protection. She wanted to enable her children to be independent, face the world fearlessly. Despite all this, there was a core tension that she faced. A mother rightly articulated her sentiments, ‘Fear is the only thing that comes in the way of going outside alone. You need to learn to be brave’

Insight: With rising aspirations and multiple possibilities, mothers believe that ‘The world would be a better place if we realised that children aren't born brave; they have to be brave.

#GoSafeOutside is a movement to help mothers raise a braver generation.

1.Starting with TVC, we revived the old Tamil martial art of Silambam and used it as the symbol for protection.

2.In the next stage, the mother teaches her daughter to not take harassment lying down

3.9 slice-of-life, digital films that taught our viewers how to defend themselves under different circumstances.

4.A special line of packaging for Hamam that carried 3 quick self-defense moves on the pack itself.

5.We collaborated with the Chennai Police to make the city safer, by transforming regular billboards into CCTV hoarding. for unsafe areas.

6.Through our school contact program, we reached out to over 4 lakhs5 students in Tamil Nadu to teach them the basics of self-defense. A first for India.

IMPACT ON BRAND AND BUSINESS

1. Brand PENETRATION grew by 150bps

2. Where most competition showed a steady growth, Hamam marked 28% upswing in its value share from Q1’2018 to Q1’2019.7

3. Hamam continued to be the No.1 brand with highest market share from Q3’2018 to Q1’2019 while Cinthol de-grew.

4. An average 10pt increase in scores for ‘Naturals’, ‘Protection’ and ‘Appeal’ compared to pre-campaign period and once again became the most trusted soap brand with 14 points rise from 2016 to 2018

SOCIETAL IMPACT

1. Aided by Hamam, the state government in Tamil Nadu introduced self-defence in over 1000 schools.

2. Over 4,00,000 girls have been given a certification course in Self-Defence

3. The Hamam Mother’s Safety Force launch pledge has reached over 2.2million women in India