SUB CATEGORY :

LONG-TERM CREATIVITY

COMPANY ENTERING :

BBDO INDIA, MUMBAI

TITLE :

SEE THE SIGNS OF 'SILENT SEPARATION' #SHARETHELOAD

BRAND :

ARIEL INDIA

ADVERTISER :

P&G INDIA

AGENCY :

BBDO INDIA PVT LTD., MUMBAI

CHAIRMAN :

JOSY PAUL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER :

SURAJA KISHORE

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER :

HEMANT SHRINGY/JOSY PAUL

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

SANDEEP SAWANT

CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

HEMANT SHRINGY/JOSY PAUL

ART DIRECTOR :

GIRISH W.

COPYWRITER :

HEMANT SHRINGY/HARSHIL SHAH

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST :

KRISHNA KV

CLIENT SERVICE DIRECTOR :

OMAR KHAN

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE :

UDISHA MISHRA

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE :

ANJALI JETHANI

BUSINESS STRATEGY DIRECTOR :

PRIYANKA RISHI/KAIZAD PARDIWALLA

STRATEGIC PLANNING DIRECTOR :

NAINA MEATTLE

STRATEGIC PLANNER :

MADHUBONI BHATTACHARYA

MEDIA AGENCY :

ESSENCE MEDIA, MUMBAI

PR AGENCY :

ACTIMEDIA, MUMBAI

FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY :

RANSOM FILMS, MUMBAI

MANAGING DIRECTOR :

SALIL KHURANA

DIRECTOR :

SHIMIT AMIN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER :

SUHANA SHARMA

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY :

In a world where household products have generally been targeted at women, Ariel has been championing gender equality in household chores for 7 years with its highly successful #ShareTheLoad campaign.
Yet each year, we continue to aim to outdo ourselves in business, marketing and communication metrics, challenge strongly competing brands and do justice to the cause we champion.
Each year, we go deeper to find diverse truths around gender inequality in the home, exploring themes like social conditioning to find the right story that would simultaneously hit close to home yet be eye-opening.
This year, in the face of persistent patriarchy that ensures that domestic responsibilities still default to women, we realised that we had to raise the stakes by illustrating the serious, widespread consequences of not sharing the load not only on women, but on relationships and families.
We found a phenomenon occurring around us: 81% women felt that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship, and 78% felt like withdrawing from the relationship because of unequal sharing of household chores.
Our Idea: Make people #SeeTheSigns of Silent Separation.
We coined the term “Silent Separation” to describe the phenomenon, and crafted a hard-hitting film that illustrated how signs of inequality at home hurt relationships in the long run. We shared this film through social-media, cinema, print, influencers, national-TV and on-ground screenings.
We also conducted on-ground events such as a sharing session with house-helps who spoke about their third-party observations of ‘Silent Separation’ in their employers’ homes, and a mass vow-renewal event where men went down on one knee and committed to be equal partners.
The campaign more than succeeded in moving needles on penetration, consideration and equity, as well as generating social conversation. This year, we saw many highest scores in the campaign history.

CREATIVITY/IDEA/INSIGHT :

Digging for a hidden truth:
We wanted to find something no one is talking about. We did Deep Listening through- stories, statistics, conflicts, conversations, news and confessions.
A Big shift:
We found that despite divorce being largely socially unacceptable, there has been a rise in silver-divorces in India—i.e., separation after 25 years.
We dug deeper—we talked to couples, marriage-counsellors, divorce-lawyers and third-party surveys.
Sad irony:
The divorce-rate is still only 1%, but 65% women feel an emotional-distance from their spouse, and 92% feel that the distance has grown over time.
Silent truth:
In the context of household responsibilities,
•81% of women feel that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship
•78% of women feel like withdrawing from the relationship because of unequal sharing of household chores
•74% of women have given up talking about sharing housework
Therefore,
OUR INSIGHT:
Women start withdrawing silently from relationship over time because of unequal sharing of household chores.
CREATIVE STRATEGY:
Make men realise that unequal sharing of load is negatively impacting their relationship over time.
IDEA:
See The Signs of ‘Silent Separation’ #ShareTheLoad
See the signs of household gender inequality and how it hurts relationships.

STRATEGY :

Our target audience is those who we advocate for: urban Indian women 25-65.
In terms of mindset, we aimed to resonate with both the ‘Progressive Equalizers’ & ‘Reluctant Progressives’. Not just those who believe in gender-equality but also those who ignore it. Those who are willing to challenge traditional gender-roles within the household and those who are unaware of it. Those who share the belief that household chores should be shared equally and those who need a reminder of it.
We planned our campaign to be effective in our chosen channels of film and on-ground events.
Our aim with the film was to maximize its reach, which is why we wanted to make it highly relatable and emotionally powerful, and therefore highly shareable. We wanted it to be something that a viewer would send to another person to spark a conversation with them.
We did not want our campaign to be only lip service, so we planned our on-ground events to reach our audience in real life and show actionable change, thus generating PR and furthering our objective of creating strong conversations around the issue and the brand.

EXECUTION :

1.Coined ‘Silent Separation’ to illustrate how signs of inequality at home hurt relationships in the long-run, spread it in culture through a short-film, using social-media, cinema, print, influencers, national-TV and on-ground.
2.For the first-time, we turned to an untapped source of influencers. We conducted a sharing session with house-helps who spoke about the signs of ‘Silent Separation’ they notice in the lives of couples whose house they work at.
3.At a mass vow-renewal event, men went down on their knee, and committed to be equal partners.

RESULT :

COMMERCIAL OBJECTIVE: Increase Ariel’s penetration, sales and market share
PENETRATION
•20% penetration (4 points above last year’s 16%).
•15.6MM new households added, out of which 10.4MM (67%) are households with women aged 35+, the prime target of our campaign
•At 63.3 MM HHs as of Aug 2023, Ariel achieved its highest ever number of households.
SALES
•Sales growth of 36% vs 29% in YA
•Repeat purchases grew to 59%.
MARKET SHARE
•Achieved 7.1% vs. 6.3% share in YA.
•Achieved the highest ever share of 7.6% in August’23, following the campaign period AMJ’23.
MARKETING OBJECTIVE: Increase consideration, brand awareness and equity
CONSIDERATION AND BRAND AWARENESS
•Highest ever consideration at 81%
•Increased brand-awareness scores to 71%, exceeding benchmark of 65%
EQUITY
•Overall equity moved to 18 points from 10 points in YA, especially in premium households.
•Even the functional attributes saw a rise, with stain removal equity increasing 1.8x YA.
•Achieved highest ever emotional equity with 56 points vs. 49 points in YA
•Highest equity ownership of ‘Superior Clean’ in washing machine post-campaign
•Attribute that moved the most: “the brand stands for progress and is a brand of today”
COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE: Maximise reach to spark conversations and change perceptions
REACH
•154 million views—30% more than 115 million views of YA
•1.4 billion impressions, 0.4 billion more than benchmark.
•More than 1600+ organic shares in the first 2 weeks of the campaign-- fastest ever.
RECEPTION OF FILM (Ipsos metrics)
•Brand Attention Index reached 137, exceeding the standard range of 85 to 115- People remembered the ad and unmissably connected it back to Ariel
•80.5% engagement while watching film
PERCEPTION CHANGE
•90% couples agreed that doing chores together will improve their relationship.
•In 2015, 79% men believed that laundry is only a woman’s job—it is only 26% today.

ENTRANT MUST CLEARLY INDICATE HOW SUSTAINED BRAND EFFECTIVENESS WAS ACHIEVED AS PART OF A LONGER TERM CAMPAIGN :

#SHARETHELOAD brought steady growth in commercial, marketing and communication metrics since its inception in 2015. The last 3 years, which saw two campaigns- #seeequal in 2022 and #see the signs of silent separation in 2023, have been no different.
2022: #SEEEQUAL
Commercial Results
•Purchase-Intent Rose 16-Points
•Sales Increase 29%
Marketing Results
•Brand Awareness Doubled, By 28-Points To Reach 143%
•Relevance Rose By 13-Points
•Brand Preference Increased By 27%
•Emotional Equity Score 49
Communication Results
•115mn+ Views On Our Video, Vs. 100mn Target
•Campaign Generated Over $35mn In “Earned Media Coverage” Across Leading News Outlets – 3x Of Ariel’s Annual Budget.
•Garnered 4bn Earned Impressions
•900+ PR Clips with A PR-Value of $35mn, Highest-Ever In Any Laundry Category Campaign In India
•View-Through-Rate Of Film Was 28%
2023: #Seethesigns Of Silent Separation
Commercial Results
•Penetration 20% (Highest In 7 Years Delivered Within Eligibility Period)
•Market-Share 7.1% (Highest In 7 Years Delivered Within Eligibility Period)
•36% Sales-Growth
Marketing Results
•Awareness 71% (Highest In 7 Years Delivered Within Eligibility Period)
•Consideration 81% (Highest In 7 Years Delivered Within Eligibility Period)
•Equity 18-Points (Highest In 7 Years Delivered Within Eligibility Period)
•Emotional Equity 56
Communication Results
•1.4bn Impressions
•80.5% Engagement While Watching Film
•Brand Attention Index Reached 137
•View-Through Rate Of Film Was 35.7%
•Post This Year’s Campaign, 90% Of People Agreed That By Doing Chores Together Would Improve Their Relationships.
From The Very Beginning 7 Years Ago Till Now, We Have Achieved:
•44million New Users
•Nearly Doubled Brand Penetration Into Households
•Sales Growth Vs Ya Averages At 116%
We succeeded in achieving brand and business metrics.
We also outperformed our benchmarks of brand and emotional equities.
Finally, we made a social impact. When we started in 2015, 79% men believed laundry is only a woman’s job—now it is 26%.

URL :

https://www.youtube.com/embed/youeaZyavg0