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.

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 for CSR and hence decided to bring to light the magnitude of child trafficking. To bring their idea to fruition, they partnered with Save the Children, India's leading independent child rights NGO, to create awareness about this growing problem in India.

In India, most e-commerce firms use ‘discounts’ and ‘sales’ to attract customers. As a result, consumers have been ‘trained’ to hunt for sale announcements and involuntarily lean towards communication that announces discounts. Snapdeal decided to leverage this acquired Indian consumer behaviour and draw attention to child trafficking, which despite being a huge problem is not discussed actively in India.

Using a bait and switch strategy, Snapdeal released a teaser announcing an “Amazing Sale for Kids”. On the day of the Sale (International Day Against Child Trafficking), the communication switched into campaign communication #KidsNOtForSale creating shock and outrage among those who were exposed to the teaser. The unanticipated manner of raising awareness about child trafficking created a huge wave of support across platforms.

Audience was redirected to a microsite (www.snapdeal.com/offers/kidsnotforsale), launched along with the campaign, exposing the state of child trafficking in our country and how these kids are forced into illicit activities. The visitors (including Snapdeal’s large customer base) were then encouraged to come forward and 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.

We leveraged the largest ecommerce platform to stop the most disturbing sale in India and created a first-of-its-kind ‘Ecommerce sale’ that tried to ‘stop a sale’. The campaign started with Snapdeal releasing fun banners highlighting ‘An Amazing Kids Sale’. As anticipated, the announcement led the audience to subscribe to the ‘Amazing Kids 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 these kids are forced into illicit activities. The visitors were then encouraged to come forward and 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

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 due to which it generated a lot of organic coverage across media platforms including traditional and digital media.

The campaign garnered 154 Million organic impressions.

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

Members of parliament spoke publically about the campaign and the 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.

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. To combat these staggering numbers of missing children, Snapdeal partnered with Save the Children, India’s leading independent child rights NGO, to bring to light the magnitude of the problem. The reason why such an unconventional approach was used is due to a unique insight. In India, most e-commerce firms use ‘discounts’ and ‘sales’ to attract customers. As a result, consumers have been ‘trained’ to hunt for sale announcements and involuntarily lean towards communication that announces discounts. Snapdeal decided to leverage this acquired Indian consumer behaviour and draw attention to child trafficking, which despite being a huge problem is not discussed actively in India.