Mumbai: There is so much written and said of the great deeds and acts of famous personalities like Alexander the Great, Vasco-Da-Gama and Genghis Khan, including the great wars they fought and the dynasties they built in numerous countries. But if one were to question on how these leaders passed away, there is very little written on that. The truth is that these great personalities did not die fighting a war or defending their territory, rather they fell victim to a highly ignored but deadly disease – Malaria, spread by mosquito bite.
To apprise the users of this hidden and unusual fact, LinTeractive, the digital division of MullenLowe Lintas Group executed a campaign for Godrej HIT on social platforms. The objective was the sensitize people about the life threatening dangers of mosquitoes in the context of World Malaria Day and establish that Kala HIT is the ultimate solution for killing mosquitoes.
It began with an activity where fictional conversations between the said characters were floated online. Each character was bragging about his achievements while the others were making fun of him in an attempt to get an upper hand. Owing to their novelty and humour, the conversations were immediately picked up on social media. People started tweeting, sharing and reacting to these. Within the first hour of the release, the content went viral and the campaign hashtag #SurvivalOfTheHittest started trending.
But as people were still wondering why Vasco Da Gama, Alexander and Genghis Khan were poking fun at each other, the brand stepped in to clear the air. It claimed the responsibility for seeding this banter between these three greats to make people realize that though these were powerful and fearless leaders in their own right, a tiny mosquito is all it took to seal their fate. Simultaneously, three GIF files were also posted to tell their individual story about great achievements followed by a sorry death due to Malaria. Apart from that, another post was shared to apprise the audience of the statistics that make Malaria a dreaded disease, to take it seriously.
The whole activity concluded with the brand urging everyone to end the mosquito menace with Kala HIT with the message, “Machacharkohalke me loge tohbharipadega”.
Commenting on the campaign, Ajay Dang, Head Marketing – Home Care, Godrej Consumer Products Limited said, “As per WHO, even today 95% of Indian population resides in Malaria endemic areas. Kala HIT being a thought leader in the Household Insecticide category has taken the responsibility to sensitize people at large about the threat of Malaria. Kala HIT has been actively spreading awareness about malaria for past few years and on this World Malaria Day, the brand took the creative route of bringing alive 3 powerful historical characters who died of Malaria, to deliver the message that Malaria does not discriminate, so don’t take mosquitoes lightly.
The campaign was designed to maximize reach and drive engagement through clutter breaking content on digital and radio media. Kala HIT supports the vision of WHO of eliminating Malaria by 2030 by driving consumer awareness and providing potent solutions that kills even hidden mosquitoes.”
The campaign delivered on its intended reach KPIs in a short time of 4 hours. But also of immense value are the conversations that this campaign managed to generate for a brand in low engagement category. Unlike most brand engagements which focus on producing branded content (especially films) leading to ‘Lazy Shares’. The campaign managed to connect with users around the idea of ‘malaria doesn’t discriminate’ and especially on twitter, where 600+ unique contributors created over 3000 unique creative pieces of content. On Facebook, over 11K plus reactions demonstrated that, if given the correct context – the audience will always freely engage on brand led initiatives.
Sumanta Ganguly, Executive Vice President, LinTeractive said: “Engagement on and offline in the correct context of the brand has always been important for us. For Godrej HIT, we have managed to deliver relevant brand engagement, be it through campaigns or asset strategy in Track The Bite mobile app. An APAC Effie in 2016 on the brand is testimony to our model.”
Commenting on the creative thought process for the campaign, Parag Shahane, Unit Creative Head, LinTeractive said: “This is a great example of how small and creative engagement creates a great buzz around the brand. We delivered the campaign message in a humorous way. We brought these famous historical characters alive to make a point, do not take malaria mosquitoes lightly.”
