Safeguard | Pamilya OnGuard

Insight

Safeguard has been the No.1 soap brand in the Philippines for decades. Its brand promise of superior skin germ protection has kept families healthy for generations. But in 2013, that position was under threat - not so much from products offering better germ protection, but from changing consumer attitudes. Thanks to an improving economy, Filipinos were wealthier than ever before and their triggers for soap purchase were changing. With more disposable income, they were no longer satisfied by simple germ protection; now they wanted to look as beautiful as the celebrities they saw on TV. Critically the brand faced three key challenges:

• Wealthy Filipinos were becoming complacent about hygiene. Swept up by their new found affluence, they no longer felt exposed to the same health risks as in the past.

• Safeguard’s promise of better family hygiene was invisible to the naked eye. Mums couldn’t see a demonstrable difference between the anti-bacterial benefits of Safeguard and the performance of beauty soaps.

• The home hygiene market was fast becoming part of the beauty market – and soaps offered the most affordable entry point.

But, while rivals now offering moisturising or whitening products, Safeguard hadn’t kept up. With sales going down the plug hole, MediaCom needed to get Safeguard back to the top of mum’s shopping list. It needed to remind mums why skin germ protection was so important and make family hygiene a priority again.

Strategy

Consumers didn’t just need to reassess the importance of skin germ protection, they needed to make it a priority. They needed to create a sense of urgency around the issue and reconnect with wealthier mums. MediaCom realised that, while the economy might have improved, mums’ core priorities hadn’t changed. They still worried about their family’s safety and security - and mum was the person everyone turned to when danger struck. The agency knew that mums regularly tune in to breaking news, via TV, news sites, news alerts and the Facebook pages of key channels. In fact, news and current affairs had the greatest affinity among mums and consistently high ratings.

The strategy needed to leverage both their concern for their family and their consumption of breaking news. They needed to shock them from their complacency. But they ouldn’t cry wolf. The warnings had to be credible, rapid and appear whenever there was an issue. Safeguard needed to go beyond being just a skin hygiene brand, and become an early warning system for worried mums. The solution would be real-time breaking news. It would interrupt mums’ normal viewing and jolt them into action, helping keep their families safe. It would highlight the dangers of regular events, such as the floods that regularly overwhelm the Philippines’ poor drainage systems, and more regional issues such as bird flu outbreaks. Safeguard would become the national news agency for hygiene risk stories. Each would be reported credibly and with urgency. It would highlight the importance of antibacterial soap in cleaning wounds and preventing the spread of sickness. It would tell mums: it’s time to make sure your family is protected.

Execution

Safeguard created a brand-new, breaking news service focused on hygiene risks. Pamilya On Guard used real news to help mums protect and care for their families. It partnered with the country’s leading news and current affairs media network, ABS-CBN, to build a team of well-known news veterans and star reporters briefed to identify daily news stories that were relevant to the brand. Each content piece was anchored on real-time news designed to make mums realise the clear dangers her family was facing right now. Pamilya On-Guard provided new-to-the world information straight from credible experts. It reacted rapidly to emergencies and calamities across the country and abroad to make sure the mums had the information they needed as soon as possible.

The content was aired across free TV, niche/cable TV and radio in a regular timeslot, with added news plugs to promote each episode. In digital, content was integrated this content into the ABS-CBN website and mobile app. It even had its own news section on Facebook and used Twitter to push new content.

Results

Pamilya On Guard has become an established news programme and now attracts higher ratings than ABS-CBN’s own news breaks. It was so credible that even the Department of Health has become a partner in the programme and other P&G brands are now using the same format to build product relevance.

• Sales grew by nearly $2m during the campaign, helping to sell an extra 14 millions bars of Safeguard in just six months.
• Since the launch of Pamilya On Guard, Safeguard White shares are the highest they have been in three years.
• Unaided Brand Awareness has increased by 232% amongst the Safeguard target market.
• Since the start of the programme, Safeguard has successfully grown the home hygiene category by 2% whilst beauty sales have declined by 5%. Ultimately Safeguard was able to not only attract new users but also convert beauty soap consumers.
• Pamilya On Guard continues to educate Filipino mums about the importance of family hygiene protection.

BRAND:

Safeguard

BRAND OWNER:

Procter & Gamble

CATEGORIES:

Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare

Toiletries/Cosmetics

REGION:

Philippines

DATE:

April - September 2013

AGENCY:

MediaCom

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Direct Marketing,Digital,Mobile,Radio,TV