MUMBAI: In 2010 when global FMCG leader Procter & Gamble (P&G) sponsored the US team for the Winter Olympics that year, little did the company know that it was the beginning of a long standing marketing strategy which will spread the world over. That year, P&G helped 250 women across America to make it to Vancouver to see their children compete at the Winter Olympics and adopt the tagline ‘proud sponsor of moms‘.
By end 2010, the FMCG giant experienced incremental sales amounting to $100 million and a 39 per cent increase in brand recall. The initiative was met with an overwhelming response and the FMCG giant decided to convert the agreement into a 10-year association with the Olympic Games.
Taking forward this initiative, the company introduced the ‘Thank you mom‘ campaign where there were videos of athletes being taken care of and encouraged by their mothers, all culminating in their ‘thankful‘ gaze on winning in their respective sport. The campaign has been taken across the globe and was recently launched in India as well.
So how does the company expect to reap rewards from a campaign associated with the Olympics where public interest is low and awareness probably even lower? To start with, here too P&G will be sponsoring athletes like boxer Mary Kom and runner Kavita Raut and will give their mothers a chance to see them perform at London later this year.
In India though, the ‘Thank You, Mom‘ campaign has taken a more literal form and the FMCG major is playing the wishing well of sorts. P&G has initiated the ‘Fulfil Her Wish‘ drive in India and is inviting consumers to confide in it their mother‘s wish. The company has pledged to fulfil the wish by Mother‘s Day (13 May).
P&G has been using avenues ranging from mainstream advertising to social media, on-ground activations and exclusive toll free numbers to record people‘s pledges and messages.
Recently, P&G organised an event at Bandra‘s Amphitheatre at Carter Road in Mumbai as part of its India initiative. The company provided a platform for kids to thank their mothers on the eve of Mother‘s Day with Bollywood actors Dia Mirza and Prachi Desai present with their respective mothers.
Mirza and Desai sparked off the event by penning their mothers‘ wish on the wish lanterns and set it afloat in the sky. They were joined by many other kids repeating the gesture and pledging to fulfil their mother‘s wish by penning them on their own wish lanterns.
According to a global survey commissioned by P&G across 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region, 55 per cent of the respondents in India expressed appreciation to their mothers infrequently whereas 23 per cent of respondents in India could not even remember the last time they thanked their moms. The findings from the survey provided guidance to the "Thank You Mom" campaign and in creating a platform for children to thank the unsung heroes of their lives - their mothers.
An official statement from the FMCG major stated: "P&G recognises the silent sacrifices that each mom makes in raising her child and provides a rare opportunity to everyone to thank their moms; with a deed, an action a gesture that we seldom express through this unique platform."
