From a creative strategy perspective, this campaign is worth getting inspired from. The approach was based on consumer emotions and culture, instead of just product insights. This campaign created results on back of 3 strategic factors that make it unique and powerful.

1) An emotional appeal that challenged a powerful mental barrier with in a hopeful, inspirational manner.

2) A CSR activity that impacted brand metrics so well that there was no need for a brand campaign.

3) A campaign that encouraged product usage without any functional features, and yet resulted in brand differentiation.

In 2016, Savlon started the Savlon Swasth India Mission (Healthy India Mission) to promote handwashing as an effective habit for preventing diseases. We’ve launched innovative initiatives like Healthy Hand Chalksticks, ID-Guard and many more. This year the pandemic created a unique situation. While it made everyone realise the need to wash hands, the overkill of handwashing messages also led to people get irritated.

People started getting lax about washing hands. We had to come up with an idea that would stand out of the clutter and get people to take notice of the importance of handwashing.

The pandemic posed a unique business challenge. It amplified the need to use handwash but the overkill of handwashing messages also amplified the irritation in the minds of our target audience. The dip showed in behaviour and in sales numbers too; they were dipping for the entire handwash category. The client needs necessitated a ‘push’ but as a brand we had always preferred campaigns with a ‘pull’ strategy. The desired outcome was an idea that would stand out by being inspirational instead of being instructional and would get people to take notice of the importance of handwashing.

From what we understood about the market, people were so saturated with handwashing communication they had started ignoring them. A dip showed in behaviour and in sales numbers too; they were dipping for the entire handwash category. It didn’t matter if the source was credible (WHO or government bodies) or the person (actors, sport-stars, influencers) delivering the message had millions of fans – people were just not listening or worse getting irritated.

The eureka moment came when we reached the insight that if people were not listening to people they usually listened to, then maybe it was time they heard the message from someone they least expected to listen to – someone who wasn’t powerful like WHO and the government or famous like the celebrities but rather someone who was going through what they were and in fact seemed to be at a disadvantage compared to them.

To overcome the resistance to handwashing messages, we chose someone whose message couldn’t be ignored. We made someone born without hands, the spokesperson for handwash. We partnered with Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA) and via them with Swapna Augustine, a brilliant but little known foot artist.

We launched #NoHandUnwashed initiative with a film starring her. In the film she uses her feet as her hands and so it catches your attention from the first frame. It is only natural that she then uses handwash to clean her feet, asking a simple question to all of us – “If it's so easy for me to use handwash, why don't you?”

A message that could not be forgotten once heard.

The video got 27.5 million views and 255.5 million impressions within a month.

Earned media coverage of the campaign by national and international publications is of an estimated value of Rs. 130 million (approx. US$ 1.8million).

Picked up the Japanese, UK, Spanish, Korean and Italian press, in addition to Indian press.

Organic shoutouts from influencers and celebrities, including Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, Indian Paralympian Deepa Malik, Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle.

Despite the fatigue caused by countless other handwashing campaigns, our communication received almost 97% positive mentions/comments.

Savlon nearly doubled its usage. And its Awareness-To-Trial ratio grew by 1.5X.

Savlon Handwash had grown at more than twice the rate of category (101% vs 44%), for sales volume for year ending Nov’2020.