The Pandemic will see the ingenuity & feistiness of women becoming even stronger and driving the country forward: Sanjeev Shukla, Muthoot Pappachan Group

Muthoot Pappachan Group (popularly known as Muthoot Blue) today announced its unique initiative #WomenBeTheChange, with the initial order of 100,000 masks made by women.

The unique #WomenBeTheChange initiative has been appreciated by various personalities across various walks of life. Padma awardee actress Vidya Balan tweeted, “Applauding Muthoot Pappachan Group’s humble effort”; Honorable Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “Impressed & pleased to join @vidya_balan in applauding this initiative”; and, Cricket prodigy Prithvi Shaw tweeted, “Proud to be with @muthootindia and @vidya_balan, in their effort”.

MediaNews4U spoke to Sanjeev Shukla – Group Chief Marketing Officer, The Muthoot Pappachan Group, on this initiative.

Need for this campaign now?

Campaign is a reflection of the initiative. At Muthoot Blue we serve the people at lower levels of the socio-economic strata. Disadvantaged & under-served common man of India. We have about 5 million such customers currently active, across the Muthoot Blue Group. In our Microfinance Business itself, we have about 2 million women customers, in small towns & rural areas, running their micro-enterprises, supporting their families. A lot of them are into tailoring. Masks are a key requirement in the Pandemic and having been involved so closely with our customers, this unique, dual-purpose initiative emerged, of procuring these masks from the women and helping empower these women and of our contribution in the pandemic of mask-distribution to the needy. Vidya Balan was indeed really keen & positive in lending her weight to spreading the message/campaign, which will help in encouraging & inspiring such women folks across the country, in promoting women empowerment and nudging everyone to contribute positively and in a sustainable-approach to fight the pandemic.

How did the shoot with Vidya happen?

Vidya, like I said has been a very positive & excited partner in the process. She shot her part herself. At the same time, our enterprising women customers, the makers of the masks also shared their recordings.

Promotion for this campaign, purely digital?

It’s a unique and yet impactful Digital-Influencer strategy in terms of campaign. As partner, Vidya posted the campaign on her social media handles, tagging us. We then liked, shared & re-tweeted. We then, requested respected MP Shri Shashi Tharoor, as an elected representative from Kerala and one of the leading Digital Influencers to Tweet about the same. We also wanted to add the weight of youth behind the campaign and so requested the cricket prodigy Prithvi Shaw to post the campaign on his social media handles. The reach multiplied, without any media monies!

At such testing times a message to all the women warriors, your thoughts.

A cliché, but as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going! We at Muthoot Blue have live inspiration from millions of women, who, in spite of poor socio-economic conditions, dream big and strive hard to achieve those dreams.  Positive Socio-cultural changes come from the women folks, in our country. The Pandemic will indeed, see the ingenuity & feistiness of women becoming even stronger and driving the country forward.