Every year 2 million children under 5 die from preventable infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia . People are unaware of these child deaths, or that hand-washing with soap can save lives through disease prevention. Our challenge therefore was to convince consumers that hand-washing with Lifebuoy could actually save children’s lives.

The innovative idea developed was to adopt the village of ‘Thesgora’, with the highest diarrhoeal incidence in India, and prove that hand-washing with soap can save children’s lives. ‘Help a child reach 5’ was the binding creative idea of the campaign, and using the emotional angle of a child’s 5th birthday, we created a cause to ensure all the children of Thesgora reach 5.

To create mass awareness of our Lifebuoy hand-washing cause, and to mobilize people to share the message and donate, we created a unique online film, Gondappa. This was inspired by real life stories from rural India, and utilised the cultural insight that it is common practice to make vows to God to overcome adversity: e.g. standing on one foot for long periods, walking barefoot on a pilgrimage. So ours is a story of father so overcome with joy when the first time a child of his survives the age of 5, he decides to walk on his hands to seek God’s blessing.

Through our ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ Movement, we empowered millions of people worldwide to help every child reach the age of 5, by driving a collective commitment using the mechanic of social engagement to spread and share the message and cause.

We sought to save children’s lives by proving that hand-washing with Lifebuoy soap reducing diarrheal incidence. We met this objective: as a result of our campaign we saw a 74% reduction in the incidence of diarrhea in Thesgora's children as hand-washing tripled, potentially saving the lives of 20 children .

And the campaign's innovative approach of eschewing shock tactics and relying on a human-focused, positive story not only opened people's minds to such avoidable deaths, but also moved them to share it with others. Gondappa realised over 16 million Youtube views, and over 358 thousand children were reached from direct donations and Lifebuoy donations from people sharing (+20 million Rupees) .

By breaking conventions, the ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ campaign was not just effective; it was life-changing.