A high impact movement created to support children’s health during COVID-19

This post is sponsored by DM Pratama Group, Indonesia.

On 2 March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Indonesia and it spread like wildfire thereafter. Daily infections reached 2,000 by the end of July. In the absence of a treatment or a vaccine, interventions implemented in Indonesia were the quarantine of the infected; travel restrictions; a ban on gatherings; and a closure of schools, playgrounds, factories, restaurants, and public spaces.

For a country with 80 million children, these measures had a widespread impact. As Indonesia approached its National Children’s Day on 23 July, the country’s child mortality rate became much higher than its Asian counterparts such as India, Myanmar and Pakistan.

However, because of the economic, social and other costs of the partial lockdown, the government planned releasing restrictions under “new normal” norms.

DMP group, as the agency, and Saka Farma, as the brand owners of Sakatonik, decided to launch a campaign which was aimed at making a difference to the lives of the consumers in dealing with the pandemic and the new normal. To do this, we started with dipstick research to dig deep into the insights regarding the concerns of mothers during these times.

Consumer insight: double worry and double efforts during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic created the first worry for children’s health and safety due to a new and unknown threat to the health of their kids. The second worry was of the new normal period, bringing the concern of kids going out of the house.

However, after three months of a complete lockdown, mothers were reluctantly ready to let their children indulge in outdoor activities, playing with their friends and attending small family events. Schools were planned to reopen in cities with lower infection rates. The double worry of the threat of the unknown challenges to health and that of letting the children go out again needed an extra effort from mothers. Strategically, we referred to this as a double effort of protecting the kids from inside with multivitamins to boost their immune system as well as from outside by following the new normal health protocols.  

Health protocols provided the best armour, but for whom?

Health protocols seemed to be the only weapon to stop this virus from spreading during the new normal period. Most mothers did educate their children, but getting them to remember and follow them was way more difficult due to restrictions on the basic nature of the kids. Also kids had to be in a positive frame of mind to consume multivitamins regularly.

Why a health and hygiene movement?

When the new normal phase was about to start, the message of safety and staying healthy, while pursuing daily life in the new environment, was to be communicated in an encouraging and supportive way. This set the stage for a movement to help families.

A movement by nature is viral, it not only gives an example, but also ignites everyone to think, share and encourage others to do the same. This could also complement the health and safety initiatives taken by WHO and the Indonesian government on National Children’s day. This was identified by the agency as the right opportunity for Sakatonik ABC to encourage parents to lead and teach their children how to explore the new world.

The #GerakanTanganABC movement – the thought behind it

Arm mothers with knowledge on how to educate their children for protection from the pandemic. Wearing masks, not touching surfaces, washing their hands regularly, and following social distances were precautions parents had been practising for the whole family when together, but were confused on how to make children follow them when they were on their own.

The solution from the agency was the idea of getting kids to use their own hands as the self-protocol check! That became the concept of “Gerakan Tangan”.

• Through their hands, children explored the world.
• Children’s arms are about 50-70 centimetre long. When spreading hands and stretching them out, it is almost the same as the safe distance stipulated by the protocol.
• “Gerakan tanganmu” for playing with a friend (physical distancing); playing outside (not to touch anything); to wearing your mask; to washing your hands with soap; sterilising hands with hand sanitiser; and to enjoy their activities.
• This became the movement for children to protect themselves physically when outside, while Sakatonik ABC would provide the desired multivitamins to protect them from the inside.

• The campaign started with a webinar, inviting parents to listen to experts on the importance of protocols and multivitamins.
• We worked together with KOLs, who were also parents, and this was spread across Indonesia.
• #GerakanTangan ABC was creatively delivered as the following simple steps crafted into a hummable and memorable way in a jingle in Bahasa Indonesia.

1. 1. For maintaining safe distance.
   2. For using the mask.
   3. For washing hands with soap.
   4. For remembering to take vitamins.

• It was encouraging, playful and a singalong health and safety instruction with a simply choreographed dance which mothers could teach their children.
• After the webinar attended by journalists and mums, the movement was boosted by micro and nano KOLs teaching the dance steps to their kids and sharing them with their followers.
• This was augmented by macro KOLs over the next two to three weeks with all KOLs asking their followers to submit their videos while participating in the movement.
• Some of these KOL videos, media coverage and the popularity of the #GerakanTanganABC was captured into a hero video as the final boost and supported at the pinnacle by mega KOLs.

 https://www.instagram.com/p/CEbyAagABx8/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Creating reach and impact for the campaign

With limited resources on hand, the challenge for digital media was to create impact and ensure the right conversations took place for people to follow the movement and amplify it.

Trust and engagement of mums with credible influencers while looking for information on the pandemic led us to make influencer marketing lead the campaign. This was supported by high-reach social media platforms Facebook and Instagram with posts and infographics on mum communities such as Ibupedia, KlikDokter to name a few. With the limited, but well thought through support, the campaign saw a huge impact for this movement.

Campaign results: 

The writer is Abhay Kapoor, group managing director at DM Pratama Group, Indonesia.
For more information, please visit https://dmpratamagroup.com/.