More than 53% of Indian women suffer from anaemia. The biggest barrier in controlling this epidemic is a lack of awareness. The barrier is magnified when you take into consideration the fact that a majority of the anaemic are from economically weaker sections of society where deficiencies are not treated with the same urgency as an illness. Our brief was to replace this myth.

For our audience, a “Manicure” is more than just a beauty treatment. It represents a luxury that she cannot be afforded. Something she sees on television and talks with her friends about, but cannot “waste” her money on.

We used the manicure as a platform to talk to her. By turning back the clock on “Influencer” marketing, the beautician became our agent of influence. She checked them for marks on their nails; the most visible sign of anaemia, and educated them on iron deficiency, anaemia and everything related to it.

By using a beautician and the manicure as a platform, the most important currency that we gained with her was “time” and “attention”. A message that she reads on the fly when its pushed to her, was now given a good 30 minutes to discuss.

An indulgent experience was turned into a platform for anaemia education.

In India, the housewife is the nucleus of the family. Making sure everyone is fine, but never stopping to take care of herself. Most women would sacrifice their own needs to fulfil a family member’s wants. But everyone has an Achilles heel. For these ladies, it was their personal vanity.

Some symptoms of Anaemia are cosmetic in nature - yellowing of nails, paleness of skin, brittle hair etc. But cosmetic signs are generally hidden or ignored by the housewives we were targeting.

Thus, the operating insight was “Beauty” is their one bare indulgence.

Their aspirations are shaped by the characters they see on TV. The strongest being appearance. This made the beautician the perfect ambassador; for detection and advocacy

The beautician became our agent of influence and the manicure, our experience platform.

This project was a test to determine the most appropriate marketing channel. This project needed a test to ensure that an innovative product that pushes a health solution is consumed by the audience that needs it the most.

Dimension 1 - Reaching the right people.

Anaemia is a huge epidemic in the lower economic strata. But the cost of Tata Salt plus puts it higher than the cost of their regular salt. We needed to use the most persuasive voice to get a share of wallet.

Dimension 2- Beauty as an insight

There are enough subjects in our audience’s life pushing fear. As a leader brand, we couldn’t go down this route. Instead we used a topic enjoyed by the audience to ensure they heard our message.

Dimension 3 - Conversation as a medium

In the age of micro-influencers, we turned back the clock by going through traditional conversations.

This initiative was an experiment. Like every experiment it gave us a guiding light on how to reach audiences that would not be reached through a heavy ATL campaign.

Result#1 – Getting the medium right

The most important result for us was the discovery of the correct medium for our message. Broadcast mediums might not be as effective as personalised conversations at scale.

Result#2 – Finding the correct voice

For the audience that we were targeting, the correct voice has classically been the grocer. This experiment showed us that the beautician is a stronger and more influential voice.