Inside tgthr's shortlisted entry for Cannes Lions 2024

The agency tgthr has submitted one campaign for Cannes Lions 2024 - Harpic Loocator - #BeFreeToPee across several categories. Out of this, the agency has secured a shortlist under Glass: The Lion For Change. 

Here are all the categories the agency is competing in:

The campaign was created to address the large issue of hygienic public loo. 70% of Indian women don’t find a useable public loo. And when they do, it’s often filthy, smelly and with no running water, electricity or even doors. So for decades, women have gone without drinking water during travel or simply held their pee. These stop-gap solutions puts them at risk of UTIs, menstrual hygiene issues and in the long-term causes kidney and bladder problems. 

Not just that, 75% of women acknowledge avoiding field jobs or extended travel due to lack of public loos, limiting their own opportunities. 

To address this issue, in February 2024, the toilet cleaning brand, Harpic India launched the Loocator – a crowdsourced app that shows women the nearest public toilets in their vicinity. Not just that. The app also allows women to rate them and add new public toilets directly to the app.

Urging women to #BeFreeToPee in a four-weeklong campaign, the brand launched a film showing the helplessness different women feel when they can’t find a loo. 

During peak traffic hours on popular routes, RJs pointed out public toilets asking women to take a pee break. Exploring further, women dehydrating themselves due to fear of not being able to find a loo was the next habit the agency aimed to break. So papercups with QR Codes leading to the app were distributed to juice stalls across areas frequented by women.

The campaign went a step further on Women’s Day. The brand partnered with two of India’s biggest loo providers, Sulabh International and PVR Nest, and cleaned the most used public toilets - giving women the experience of a clean public loo. 

Aalap Desai, Co-Founder and CCO, tgthr said, “Along with that, we targeted the most difficult part of their day – the commute. Hours and hours of traffic with women holding in their pee, experiencing immense discomfort in the process. So, we tied up with RJs to make special radio mentions pointing out 4-star toilets on the routes with the heaviest traffic.”

Along with this, the brand ran performance campaigns across YouTube, Meta, Google Search and Google UAC. Additionally, ads on the radio were also run during this campaign to raise awareness. 

Desai mentioned that by tapping these touchpoints, the agency was able to extend the campaign while increasing downloads of the app. 

The campaign reached 163 million + women across India which led to INR 84 million+ in earned media and 64000+ app downloads. 

Indian celebrities from all walks of life joined in including actors like Akshay Kumar, Chitrangda Singh, and Soha Ali Khan spoke about the criticality of such an app. Former captain and cricketing star of the India Women's Cricket team, Mithali Raj resonated with the app as did women activists like Sonali Khan and Rani Ko-HE-Nur. 

The founder and director of World Toilet Organization, Prof Dr. Jack Sim also expressed his interest in bringing the app to Singapore to ease the lives of women there as well. 

On attending Cannes, Desai reminisces of his first experience saying it was surreal. “As the mecca for advertising, it was on my bucket list since the time I joined the industry. More than the festival, it is the people you get to chat with is what makes it truly special.”

As global trends look to India as a prized market for consumers and manufacturing, the industry too has reflected this wave, he continues. 

“In the past few years, quite a few Indian campaigns have gone ahead to snag Lions and this number is getting bigger every year. This has certainly improved the representation India enjoys at the festival of creativity, not only by the work being judged but in the jury room too. It's also leading to more agencies aspiring towards creating stellar work that can snag the prized Lion, improving the baseline for creativity across the country.”