Turn a compelling YouTube video/commercial into something more – a collective call to action that serves as the centerpiece for effort to get millions of American to change an age-old tooth-brushing behavior that wastes billions of water a year.

Fed the campaign to important media outlets and targeted editors clamoring for a story exclusive. In December 2015, “Save Water” was seeded to one of the world’s most highly influential and widely read media outlets, The Wall Street Journal, resulting in driving demand by editors who were covering various story angles.

We influenced them leading up to, during and post-Super Bowl to cover the campaign and its message.

With exclusive access to Colgate’s GM of integrated marketing and Jim Harbaugh, former NFL coach of the San Francisco 49ers, we gave editors something to talk about. Jim put the spotlight on the Save Water campaign while reminding people that #EveryDropCounts at Radio Row, Super Bowl’s media day.

As media coverage increased, a groundswell of social buzz, led by influencers, encouraged communities to ‘turn off the faucet’ and share the “Save Water” message among their friends and families.

Tier1: Colgate experienced a statistically significant uplift in emotional brand-bonding attributes, specifically brand likability (+11%) and “commitment to the brand” (+14%).

Tier2: Appearing in a variety of influential media outlets – from Forbes, Global Grind to Mashable – “Save Water” coverage included Huffington Post calling the campaign “a symbol of what a real idea, with a serious activation and powerful platform can accomplish”, while Bustle said, “if every person who sees the Colgate ad pledges to stop running the tap… this would change the course of history”.

Results totaled 2.6 billion impressions, almost twice as many PR impressions when compared to all of the 2015 brand campaigns combined. And consumers reacted by sharing coverage more than 53K times and close to 300,000 likes, shares, favorites and comments from PR.

Tier3: Colgate became the #1 toothpaste brand in the U.S. for the first time in 4 years. And still on top.

Despite its powerful imagery and sobering message, Colgate's “Save Water” video could have been just another fleeting YouTube video that eventually fades away, providing limited long-term benefit for the brand and its water conservation message. Instead, we turned it into a reverberating call-to-action aimed at changing an age-old tooth-brushing behavior to draw renewed attention to water conservation.

#EveryDropCounts positioned Colgate as a brand with a new kind of water consciousness, one encouraging a change in the use of its product as a way to incite water conservation; all through the power of a provocative social effort to inspire action.

Take a 180 approach to the typical Super Bowl coverage where brands tout how much they spent highlighting product features and benefits. Instead, we talked about how much Colgate spent to NOT talk about its product. Rather, we spent our 30-seconds trying to convince consumers to change an age-old tooth-brushing habit that was wasting millions of gallons of water per year: leaving the water on while brushing their teeth.

We purposely pitched an exclusive to a top-tier (and global) newspaper to break the story to influence marketing & advertising reporters who cover the Super Bowl.

Partnering with influencers, we shared jaw-dropping stats about how much water could be saved by simply turning off the faucet while brushing, providing access to spokespeople and popular social media stars to boost the message.

The messaging via print, broadcast, online and social activations, touched a range of consumer demographics and encouraged participation and activation.

Situation:

The world is desperate for water. A report from the BBC suggests that in just 15 years half the world's population could be living where there isn't enough water to go round. Colgate was listening. Developed for a Latin America campaign, the “Save Water” video gained momentum across media/social media circles. Creative tests showed highly positive and emotional responses to the campaign’s water conservation message. As a brand with an intimate relationship to water, Colgate saw an opportunity to elevate that message in a powerful way.

Brief:

Turn the 30- second video into something more, expanding the save-water message into a meaningful campaign that would stick with media and consumers, triggering coverage, conversation and action.

Objective:

Positively link Colgate to water conservation, building an authentic and emotional connection that gets people to turn off the faucet while brushing their teeth and encourage others to do the same.