#UnStereotype: Learnings from an FMCG campaign that connected

Earlier in March this year, there was a glut of Women’s Day campaigns, with every brand vying to climb on the social bandwagon and appeal to its female target audience.

In the chaos, a few campaigns embedded the brand well in the context of a social message.

Here is a look at tea brand Brooke Bond’s #UnStereotype campaign, and how it worked well in conjunction with relevant media.

The basic premise of the campaign was that most of us typecast women as solely responsible for all domestic chores whereas men are held responsible for supporting the family financially - period.

Given the rising conversation about equality today, a campaign that took on this stereotype came at the right time.

">

Briefly, the central ad for this campaign went as follows: In a calm and cosy atmosphere, a four-year-old boy enjoys playing with his kitchen set. As he pretends to prepare tea, we are reminded of the fact that doing this does not make him a girl. While preparing a cup of tea is often considered a woman’s duty, this boy seems to have mastered it by doing it gracefully and knowing exactly how much sugar to add. He also prepares it for his friend.

The video concludes with a message that making a cup of tea only makes him an adorable boy, not a girl.

Making the connect

The brand collaborated with Women's Web, a digital media platform, to reach urban women who are the influencers when it comes to gender equality and feminism. The #UnStereotype campaign engaged over 130000 users across the Women's Web’s site, Facebook and Twitter feeds since its release on March 8.

Site content was created around the campaign in an organic manner, taking it to more users, and encouraging users to share the campaign message and creative.

At the end, the viewers were asked to share the video if we believed in #UnStereotype.

Learnings from this campaign

What was interesting about this campaign was how well it integrated the brand into the story, without making it appear forced in any manner. Nor did it devolve to the other end of the spectrum, making it appear purely like a social message.

Some key learnings for advertising teams and social media strategists from this exercise are as follows:

• Getting on to the social message bandwagon alone does not work for the brand, unless a powerful story can bring your brand into the campaign organically.

• Identifying partners/channels to collaborate with for a campaign has to take into account reach as well as quality parameters; credibility rises when a social campaign is delivered by a platform that is invested in the space and relevant to that message and target audience.

• And on a lighter note, just as we sometimes learn the most profound things from children in real life, so it is in advertising!

Author: Savitha Sampath is a Freelance SEO and Digital Marketing Consultant.