Unilever's soap brand Lifebuoy leveraged Indian cultural traditions and a food delivery app to increase hand hygiene practices.
Lifebuoy aimed to reach the widest possible audience by targeting key moments when food consumption was at its peak.
Hand hygiene relevance in India was at its peak during the COVID-19 outbreak but had reached an all-time low in 2023. As the fear of COVID went down, so did Indians' interest in handwashing.
Lifebuoy, committed to its social mission of safeguarding people against life-threatening diseases spread through bad hand hygiene, was looking to emphasize its position as a champion of hygiene and to improve handwashing habits in its growth-driving market of Maharashtra.
For Maharashtrians whose cuisine and culture compels them to eat with their hands, this issue of declining hand-hygiene habits proved very alarming. Lifebuoy aimed to connect with the broadest audience possible and through a common medium, at a time when eating would be in focus.
The Indian cultural practice of eating by hand can turn into a health hazard for billions, especially during festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, as participants enjoy the excitement of consuming delicacies while overlooking the simple task of handwashing.
Lifebuoy recognized this practice as a cause for concern and sought to identify an opportunity to remind people to wash their hands before they ate.
In partnership with Swiggy, the second-largest food delivery app in India, Lifebuoy and agency partner Mindshare India developed a media strategy that allowed Lifebuoy to implement its hygiene-intervention mechanism at a large scale.
Lengthy festivals, like the 10-day long Ganesh Chaturthi, create higher chances of people ordering food online because of the convenience offered by delivery apps.
To ensure Lifebuoy reached its audience on peak ordering days, the brand chose the last three days of Ganesh Chaturthi to activate an intervention in partnership with Swiggy: a message about hand hygiene on the Swiggy order-tracking screen.
Every time users anticipated their food delivery, they were exposed to the branded message, "Food's on the way! Get rid of germs using Lifebuoy and enjoy safe eating. Happy Ganesh Utsav!" This messaging created a subconscious association in recipients' minds between the excitement of receiving their order and the importance of washing their hands before eating.
The campaign effectively delivered Lifebuoy's handwash reminders by intervening through every food order before it was received by users. The contextual placement allowed for building a strong trigger that improved hand-hygiene.
The campaign's results included:
