The Kumbh Mela in India is the largest religious gathering on the planet, which also makes it a huge marketing opportunity. However the chaos at the mela, combined with low attention spans, makes conventional media inefficient in reaching out to consumers. Moreover, the government body managing the Kumbh Mela reserves 70% of the space/ time on all traditional media like OOH, radio, print for noncommercial messaging, reducing brand communication impact considerably.

At this festival, Lifebuoy wanted to land the brand message “Wash your hands with soap before a meal” in people’s minds. The dire need therefore was to effectively deliver the message in the clutter of marketing campaigns.

In India, most people eat with their hands, and the simple act of washing hands with soap before eating can reduce the incidence of diarrhea, which is frequent in events like the Kumbh Mela. However consumers are either blissfully unaware or they simply forget. Which is why, we decided to focus on meal time as an important hand-washing occasion.

We created a new medium for the brand message - a medium that could not be missed or be ignored.

WHAT YOU EAT BECAME THE MEDIUM - THE ROTI OR INDIAN BREAD (which is served with every Indian meal).

We created a heat stamp capable of leaving a simple message on a ‘roti’: ‘Lifebuoy se haath dhoya kya’ (Did you wash your hands with Lifebuoy?) and printed this edible message on fresh rotis being served to the visitors at the Kumbh Mela. Using a roti to deliver the brand message helped to influence people at the moment of truth – just before they start eating their meal.

The campaign was launched at 100 dhabas (eateries), with 100 promoters stamping over 2.5 million fresh rotis with our special heat stamp. Since people eat in groups, our message-on-a-roti reached millions at the Kumbh Mela.

On a total investment of just US$36000 we directly reached 5 million people with the brand message exceeding our target by almost five times, creating a record for the lowest cost per direct contact – less than 1 cent. The campaign garnered 80 million global media impressions resulting in earned media amounting to $59.3 million (ROI of over 1600 times) besides incremental sales of $44 for every $1 spent, helping Lifebuoy hit the highest ever market share in the last 3 years in Feb’13!