Recent political and economic reforms in Myanmar have opened up the country’s trade borders to the rest of the world. As one of the first brands to enter the market, Colgate wanted to give something back to the country that had so warmly welcomed them. They also had a unique opportunity to grow their consumer base in rural areas that competitors hadn’t reached. To solve both these challenges, Colgate uses their fast growing distribution network to provide schools with educational resources they currently desperately lacked.

But the way we did this was unique. We worked with Colgate’s packaging team to design and print health education posters inside the cardboard boxes that were supplied to local rural Colgate retailers. These shop owners and distributors could then supply their local school with these boxes that could be opened up and used as posters to hang on classroom walls. Each poster was a lesson plan in itself, with the facility to call a toll free number for more information.

Following the success of this trial, Colgate now intend to roll out the idea nationally.

Instead of using westernized educational texts and diagrams, we designed a series of posters in traditional Burmese illustration styles: a combination of native folk art, local insight and oral care truths. The vibrant colours, texture and characters of each illustration tell a story which results in a set of inspirational educational materials. The ‘digestive system’, ‘brushing guides’, ‘good vs bad food’ and ‘Grandpa’s example’ present a rounded story perfect for the youthful target audience.

The pilot was launched on 17 March 2014 to numerous schools across rural Myanmar.

Turning Packing into Education was successfully rolled out in rural schools in Myanmar. The head teacher at the Basic Education Primary school #16 (Thankangyunn) declared it ‘an inspiring solution to answer our most pressing educational needs. Accessing the lesson plans via the tollfree number felt like having an extra pair of hands in the classroom’. Following the success of this trial, Colgate now intend to roll out the initiative across the rest of Myanmar.

[Limited data is available at this time due to this being a new market and there being no established market share data available yet]