Leading hygiene brand Savlon has unveiled Savlon Swasth India Mission, a programme designed to encourage behavioural change towards washing hands amongst children through various engaging and entertaining educational initiatives in schools. In line with Savlon Swasth India’s proposition of ‘Healthier Kids, Stronger India’, the programme introduces interactive activities including a series of storytelling and visual engagement that educate and encourage children to adopt good hand hygiene practices.
On the eve of Children’s Day, Savlon Swasth India Mission introduced an engagement with Savlon Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks – a set of unique chalk sticks infused with cleansers like soap. The chalk sticks are designed to engage children in primary schools and emphasise the importance of washing hands before eating.
Sharing his thoughts, Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, stated: “Hand hygiene is a critical issue. We believe, to induce behavioural change among children, the process of communication and education has to be fun, engaging and memorable. In that context, Savlon Swasth India’s ‘Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks’ is a simple yet interesting innovation. It is an engaging way to educate children on the importance of washing hands especially before eating. This is one of the various educational tools deployed by the Savlon Swasth India team to help initiate children into the habit of washing hands.â€
Commented Harshad Rajadhyaksha, ECD Ogilvy Mumbai, on the initiative: “Before anything else, I would like to really thank the client who partnered us to make this happen. It wasn’t easy but they never made us feel it was impossible. Savlon is on a great path and we intend to take the brand from strength to strength.â€
Added Kainaz Karmakar, ECD Ogilvy Mumbai: “If we can use our skills of ideation to make a difference to not just the brands but the lives of people, it’s a special kind of joy. The ‘Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks’ initiative sets out to do just that. Even if one kid is saved from an illness because of this initiative we will all go home happy.â€
ITC Ltd’s Fiama has unveiled its new campaign that introduces its philosophy of celebrating life with positivity.
Talking about the new proposition of Fiama, Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, said, “Fiama with its new communication ‘Dil Ko De Lift’ encourages everyone to look at the brighter side of life. The campaign distinctly positions Fiama as a brand that celebrates positivity and is scientifically designed to not just uplift the mood but also give gentle and effective skin care with the innovative skin conditioning gel.â€
He added, “The shower gels and gel bars are designed at the Laboratoire Naturel, a pioneering creation that houses state-of-the-art consumer and sensory measurement facilities to understand the Indian skin better.â€
The campaign has been conceptualised and realised by Taproot Dentsu. Speaking on the focus of Fiama’s new TVC, Pallavi Chakravarti, Executive Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu, said, “Our daily routines are full of cribs and peeves. But no one can deny that the few minutes we spend in the shower serve as that much-needed oasis in the midst of life’s woes. In those minutes we feel good about ourselves, we revel in the moment, and we believe that everything’s going to be fine after all. It’s also when we’re at our uninhibited best, doing and saying things that we’d never do in public. The new campaign couples this feeling of optimism and upliftment that is integral to bath-time with the sensorial joy of showering with Fiama – the fragrance and the lather.”
ITC’s leading health and hygiene brand, Savlon has announced Saina Nehwal shuttler as its brand ambassador.
In its new campaign with Saina, Savlon seeks to inspire parents to let go of their fears and encourage children to push their limits and maximize their potential to succeed in life.
Announcing the association, Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, said, “Savlon is happy to engage ace shuttler Saina Nehwal as the brand ambassador. Her journey truly exemplifies determination, dedication and hard work. Saina personifies Savlon’s core brand thought of performance power in more ways than one.â€
He added, “Parents want their children to succeed but also want to protect them from the world. As a brand we seek to inspire parents to encourage their children to challenge limits and maximise their true potential. The brand purpose is to impact society in a positive manner and create a meaningful engagement. And also to showcase the performance of Savlon, which is the best product of its kind in the market.â€
Savlon brings alive the narrative of Saina Nehwal. A young girl who relentlessly pursued her dreams fighting against all adversities with the unstinted support of her parents. Her parents’ encouragement lent her belief in her talent to journey the course to becoming World’s no. 1.
Marico Limited announced that Sameer Satpathy has resigned from his position as the Chief Marketing Officer to pursue opportunities outside Marico. Sameer plans to continue as CMO of the Company until 15th September, 2015 to facilitate a seamless transition to his successor. The company will appoint Anuradha Aggarwal as the Chief Marketing Officer with effect from August 24th, 2015.
Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO, Marico Ltd. said, “Sameer has been a valued member and an integral part of Marico’s growth and transformative journey for the past decade. He has significantly contributed in building the Marico of the future; and played a key role in shaping the Marico marketing organization as it exists today.
We have a strong marketing team and I am confident that Anuradha will successfully take over the baton from Sameer. Anuradha brings a wealth of experience to the role, with her understanding of the consumer business and her knowledge of marketing to the new-age consumer and we look forward to her valuable contribution in strengthening this team and taking Marico to newer heightsâ€.
Anuradha is a marketing veteran who has 18 years of experience across diverse consumer businesses. Anuradha has worked with organizations like Hindustan Unilever for the first 12 years of her career, followed by Vodafone and most recently with Mondelez. In her previous role, Anuradha was Director Innovations, Biscuits Category for Mondelez Asia Pacific.
Anuradha holds a Post Graduate Degree in Business Administration from IIM, Bangalore and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University.
Anuradha started her career at Unilever where she worked for 12 years, across sales, marketing and general management functions, managing local and global brands and businesses across India and South Asia. She was at the helm of many iconic brand transformation projects including the migration of Surf, the success story of Dove hair care, relaunch of Vaseline and the re-ignition of the largest shampoo brand in India – Clinic Plus. Post Unilever, Anuradha she was Senior Vice President – Brand Communication and Consumer Insights with Vodafone India for 4 years.
A recent Gartner study in the US predicted that by 2015, 25 per cent of organisations will have a CDO and that the chief digital officer may be the most exciting strategic role in the decade ahead. While such statistics are often swept aside by Indian head honchos as a US reality, the wave may reach Indian shores faster than expected.
Though a relative late starter, digital has made swift inroads into the Indian marketplace. Brands are upping the ante on digital allocations. No Indian marketing head can have a conversation without talking about how serious they are about digital. They’ve even moved to saying “It’s not the wave of the future but what’s happening right now!” which is an improvement.
But where are all the CDOs then? Globally, organisations as diverse as Starbucks, Metropolitan Museum of Art, BBC Worldwide, Amnesty International are known to be already deploying the services of a CDO. While the title is yet to gain vogue, some companies are making a few non-cosmetic changes.
PepisCo tweaked its structure to make digital a strategic vertical reporting in directly to the head of marketing. Earlier, it resided with individual brands. Deepika Warrier, vice president – Po1 (Power of 1) marketing, PepsiCo India, is clear that digital needs to be incubated by the CMO as it requires focused mentoring to build interactions with other business functions. Their team is led by Rishi Dogra, who along with the digital mandate is involved with a unique concept called Pepsi Labs. He works with co-creators incubating, experimenting and testing new content ideas. PepsiCo claims to have doubled its digital budget from last year.
SBI Life has a business vertical to tap the potential of online sales of life insurance policies. Shares Chandramohan Mehra – country head – digital business, SBI Life Insurance, “Through the channel, it distributes products exclusively developed for online business, and has gained leadership position in direct-to-consumer sales.” He was formerly the VP and head of brand at SBI Life Insurance.
Jasmin Sohrabji
Jasmin Sohrabji, CEO India and South East Asia, OmnicomMediaGroup is convinced about the case for a CDO. The reason it hasn’t happened thus far is due to scale and scope. Even among the more digital aware, spends hover at about 10 per cent, offering little or less than threshold scale. As focus (and spends) move to digital platforms, the relevance for a CDO will come into play, she feels.
Adds Rishad Tobaccowala, Chairman, DigitasLbi and Razorfish, “CDOs should be the evangelist for ensuring the company remains relevant to changing behaviour. His role is important in the early years of digital to ensure a voice for tomorrow.” The case for a CDO becomes even stronger in a backdrop where digital budgets are increasing but cutting edge case studies are few and far between.
Most conversations hover around aggregating fans and likes on Facebook as also prerolls of campaigns on YouTube. But has the market reached a stage where the advent of a CDO is imminent? Or is this yet another instance of India leapfrogging a few stages of development, to create its own delivery-mechanisms?
At L’Oreal India, where the digital spends have been ramped by nearly 125 per cent over the last year, the function is embedded within respective brands. Satyaki Ghosh, director, consumer products division, L’Oreal India avers that they could eventually have a CDO, but he would service the entire company as against just the Consumer Product division.
The CDO role needs to have a larger platform to build the digital capability of the entire organisation and the digital business, according to Arjun Srivastava, consumer practice leader – India, Egon Zehnder.
Marico too is currently embracing a decentralised structure. Sameer Satpathy, EVP and business head, Marico India says, “The medium gives enormous flexibility in terms of engagement, creativity and speed.” All their brand managers are being trained and certified on using digital, in order to have an enabling ecosystem.
CVL Srinivas
Which is as it should be says CVL Srinivas, CEO (South Asia), GroupM: “CMOs need to drive digital as part of their core job. Most advertisers still look at digital as a silo and struggle to integrate it into their mainstream plans.” However digital specialist Harshil Karia, cofounder, Foxy-Moron makes a case for digital having grown too big for a CMO’s mandate.
He says, “CMOs haven’t naturally taken to ‘digital thinking’ and ‘digital as an ecosystem’. It is difficult in a world where maintaining Share of Voice, pleasing brand ambassadors, coordinating to get the best out of various agencies and reporting to management and sales teams is a priority.”
A private sector bank claims that only 5 per cent of its business is coming from branches. The rest is from other channels that include digital: mobile and internet as well as telebanking. In such a scenario the medium is no more just for marketing or brand building but has a huge business implication as well. The biggest need for CMOs today is to adapt or otherwise provide for the digital landscape since it will emerge as a key component of marketing strategies.
Kent Wertime, COO, Ogilvy Asia Pacific, and co-author of DigiMarketing, believes “The CMO has to determine today how to integrate traditional means of marketing/channels with digital channels, the capture and use of data, and build new relationships with big digital media players/platforms.”
Digital gives insight in real time through social media and its endless streams of conversations and insights. Increasingly, it will be about harnessing this information. For instance, Dell has a chief listening officer, who “listens” to what consumers are saying and feeds these insights to the CMO. So whether as an adjunct to the CMO or his equal, a company serious about the future would do well to consider the CDO.
Leading hygiene brand Savlon has unveiled Savlon Swasth India Mission, a programme designed to encourage behavioural change towards washing hands amongst children through various engaging and entertaining educational initiatives in schools. In line with Savlon Swasth India’s proposition of ‘Healthier Kids, Stronger India’, the programme introduces interactive activities including a series of storytelling and visual engagement that educate and encourage children to adopt good hand hygiene practices.
