Snapdeal is one of India’s largest online marketplaces with 7 million daily visits and 70+ million app downloads, with 63% of their audience belonging to 25+ age group (potential parents). They wanted to leverage their platform to bring to light the magnitude of the problem of child trafficking. They partnered with Save the Children, India's leading independent child rights NGO, to create awareness about this growing problem in India.

Child trafficking is the third largest crime in India. An estimated 7 children go missing every hour. Half of them, are never able to return home. Between 2016 and 2017, nearly 1 lakh children went missing.

We created a first-of-its-kind ‘Ecommerce sale’ that tried to ‘stop a sale’. Just like a typical sale, we announced an amazing "Sale for Kids" through fun banners which later switched to stark banners highlighting the "Sale of Kids". The sale microsite resembled an ecommerce website and highlighted stories of how children, both boys and girls, are trafficked and on many occasions even forced to give up their organs or fight in conflict zones thus leading to exploitation. On the microsite was a call to action asking the audience to sign a petition for early passage of the Anti-trafficking bill.

We deployed a bait and switch strategy to draw attention to child trafficking, which despite being a huge problem is not discussed actively in India. The campaign started with Snapdeal releasing banners highlighting an ‘Amazing Kids Sale’. As anticipated, the announcement led the audience to subscribe to the upcoming sale. On the day of launch, these appealing banners flipped to reveal the dark web of child trafficking, creating shock and outrage among those who were exposed to the banners. Audience was redirected to a microsite (www.snapdeal.com/offers/kidsnotforsale), launched with the campaign, exposing the state of child trafficking in our country and how kids are forced into illicit activities. The visitors including Snapdeal’s large customer base were then encouraged to sign a petition for early passage of the Anti-trafficking bill, introduced in 2016 but pending in parliament. Campaign was promoted to Snapdeal’s large customer base through emailers, notifications and banner marketing.

A week before the campaign launch, we kickstarted a teaser with attractive pre-sale banners mentioning “Amazing Kids Sale,” on Snapdeal. Social Media Communication via Snapdeal handles promoted the sale and was integrated into Snapdeal’s app environment as well. Promotions were extended to Snapdeal’s large customer base through emailers, notifications and banner marketing.

On the D-day, banners led to a website (created with Snapdeal’s interface) showcasing the dark reality of child trafficking. Accordingly, communication across Snapdeal’s social handles changed to the message of #KidsNotForSale, this was further cross-promoted by Save the Children on their social profiles.

The website encouraged people to donate towards protecting children as well as to sign a petition for the Anti-trafficking bill. We further seeded the campaign communication to influential celebrities to spread the word and strategically included parent bloggers and influencers as well to ensure the topic was made as real and visible as possible.

Government of India passed the Anti-Trafficking bill after 2 years of it being proposed in the parliament.

As soon as the campaign went live, it was discovered by a member of parliament as a result of which it generated a lot of organic coverage across media platforms including traditional and digital media.

The campaign garnered 154 Million social impressions.

Indian Celebrities & millions of Indians came together to voice their support

Members of parliament spoke publically about the campaign and how there is a need to put a stop on the ‘Child Trafficking’ racket.

Government of India passed the Anti-Trafficking bill after 2 years of it being proposed in the parliament.

6277 petitions were signed

#KidsNotForSale trended with 8329 mentions and 68.9 million impressions.

Snapdeal received an increase of 59% in terms of unique visitors due to the campaign in the month of July.