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#MobExAwards 2021 highlight: Lifebuoy lives up to its reputation as it buckles down amid the pandemic

#MobExAwards 2021 highlight: Lifebuoy lives up to its reputation as it buckles down amid the pandemic

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Launched in 1894 by the Lever brothers to help in the battle against cholera, Lifebuoy has a history of more than 120 years. 

The brand has always been a market leader in the health sector by promoting cleanliness and hygiene. With a goal to making hygiene and health solutions easily accessible to everyone, the brand stood firm and buckled down when the pandemic hit. 

Living up to its reputation, Lifebuoy wasted no time in making a true impact on the regions in Indonesia, ensuring the masses were aware of the importance of good hygiene. 

Thus, Lifebuoy came up with the “Lifebuoy arms Indonesians against COVID with the power of real-time data” campaign, which impressed the judges, clinching gold awards for Best Direct to Consumer Campaign; Best Insight-Driven Mobile Campaign; Best Location-Based Marketing; Best Result-Driven Mobile Campaign; and Best Use of Video at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s MobEx Awards 2021. 

Lifebuoy also won silver for Best Awareness Campaign and Best COVID-19 Response, as well as the bronze award for Most Innovative Use of Mobile Technology. 

Challenge 

Lifebuoy was one of the first companies to respond when the pandemic broke in Indonesia and released public service announcements across 17 countries in just 72 hours.

Recognising it had to make a true impact, the brand knew it had to reach Indonesians on the medium they spent most of their time on – mobile. Lifebuoy then had the objective to raise awareness among the mass Indonesian households on the importance of washing hands to keep good hygiene, and social distancing during the pandemic, by serving relevant personalised messaging. 

For this campaign, Lifebuoy targeted the six largest provinces in Indonesia with mobile-savvy users. The provinces included Jakarta, East Kalimantan, Bali, North Sumatra, Riau, and West Sumatra. 

To ensure the campaign’s effectiveness, key household influencers and decision-makers who purchased handwashing products for their households, families, and singles included, were targeted. As a result, the campaign was aimed at young and older mothers, single Millennial women, and men. 

Strategy 

The brand started by taking a full-funnel approach to identifying the right users, understanding their circumstances and engaging through relevant communications. With the power of in-app programmatic advertising, Lifebuoy encouraged users to practise the right safety measures during the pandemic. 

To make the campaign a success, the brand had to marry multiple sources of data to build effective communications and drive definitive action. To meet this objective, the brand arrived at the COVID Action Readiness Evaluator (C.A.R.E) which combined a multitude of data sources that included claimed and observed user behaviour, and growth in local cases, among others. 

The brand also needed to educate Indonesians about the importance of washing hands to keep good hygiene, and social distancing, during the pandemic to stay safe. In this way, the brand created an innovative, personalised and location-targeted mobile campaign for consumers by serving unique video ads that reflected the reality of their surroundings and the pandemic situation. 

Execution 

In the first phase, weekly surveys were conducted across the six target provinces of Jakarta, East Kalimantan, Bali, North Sumatra, Riau, and West Sumatra. Key audience segments were also identified. 

Based on the data points collected across all data sources, the brand moved to the second phase. Next, the company rolled out unique ads with messaging boards based on three key themes – social distancing measures, handwashing measures and overall COVID preparedness. The ads were then served to the target audience segments. 

Finally, the brand donated 425 handwashing stations across key cities in association with the National Disaster Management Association to combat COVID-19 and encourage healthy handwashing habits among the citizens of Indonesia. 

Leveraging InMobi Pulse, Lifebuoy conducted the weekly surveys across the six key regions. Five key indicators were used as measures – awareness of preventive measures; individual efforts to disengage from social gatherings; frequency of handwashing; availability of sanitisers; and store accessibility. In just eight weeks, the brand collected 62,000 responses. Lifebuoy then reached out to its intended target audience. 

Based on several factors that determined the local reality, including the region, the COVID preparedness score, the number of cases, and the target group, Lifebuoy created 72 unique video ads as part of this mobile-first programmatic campaign. 

To reflect the on-ground reality of each Indonesian, every ad was customised based on a variety of dynamic elements such as the province each user lived in, the number of cases in the area, the daily habits of residents in the area, as well as the persona of the end-user. 

When users clicked on the video, they were redirected to a web page where users could purchase a whole range of Lifebuoy products which could help keep them safe during these challenging times.

Results 

Through this mobile campaign, Lifebuoy successfully reflected the on-ground reality of each Indonesian with its personalised mobile awareness programme. According to Lifebuoy, the campaign proved to be a huge success, reaching millions of Indonesians across the country. 

The ads created for the campaign were able to reach more than six million locals with more than 10 million completed video views. Furthermore, there was an increase in the brand’s internet footprint, with more than one million visits to its page after the campaign was launched. Additionally, four of the provinces the brand focused on saw a week-on-week decline of COVID-19 cases.

 

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