Colgate Program Addressing Dental Access in Rural India Takes Home Honors at Prestigious Worldwide Media Event
Mumbai–‘Pocket Dentist,’a mobile ring-back service providing dental care information access in rural India, has received two Gold Awards for Best Use of Mobile and Impact at the 2018 Festival of Media Global Awards. The full list of winners was announced on May 14th.
The Festival of Media Global Awards are the only awards to celebrate the best media campaigns from around the world, open to all those involved in brand communication including agencies, media owners, brands, ad tech and communication specialists.
Launched by Colgate-Palmolive and Red Fuse Communications, and backed by the Indian Dental Association, ‘Pocket Dentist’detects multiple dialects and responds to 30 common oral health questions relating to 7 broad areas, and delivers the best advice for individual problems.
Pocket Dentist went live in two provinces of rural India in its pilot stage, giving over 6 million people access to reliable dental advice for the first time.This program was developed as most rural Indians staying in deep interior media dark regions have no access to any reliable dental advice. Most can’t afford smart-phones or data, Internet access is slow and unreliable. But 80% of households have access to a basic mobile phone. The ‘Pocket Dentist’ is publicized using mobile voice ads, hand-painted outdoor murals, and word of mouth from health workers.Villagers access ‘Pocket Dentist’ with a free of charge missed call from basic mobile, without data charges and receive a no-cost call-back in their dialect within minutes.
The program generated over 22,000 calls in five months in the first two provinces; and was later expanded to eight more provinces, receiving over 130,000 calls over eight months.
Watch the ‘Pocket Dentist’ video here: https://vimeo.com/270486371
“Colgate believes that ‘Everyone deserves a future they can smile about.’ We believe this program is life changing for people in rural India and we are committed to expanding it to more markets and impacting more people worldwide,”said Colgate-Palmolive’s CMO, Mukul Deoras.
“It’s great to see our client awarded for this ground-breaking initiative. Wins for the agency are the icing on the cake,” said Shubha George, Managing Director, Red Fuse Communications. “In essence, ‘Pocket Dentist’ is a smart phone solution for people without smartphones, reaching India’s rural interior to bring much-needed oral health advice.”
“Pocket Dentist” previously received five Indian Digital Media Awards in 2017, with Colgate-Palmolive being named IDMA ‘Client of the Year,” and Red Fuse Mumbai taking home the honor of ‘Mobile Media Agency of the Year.”
