Lifebuoy arms Indonesians in the fight against COVID with the power of real-time data
Lifebuoy arms Indonesians in the fight against COVID with the power of real-time data
Asia
Lifebuoy arms Indonesians in the fight against COVID with the power of real-time data
Solution
Understanding Consumers, Engaging with Customers

About Lifebuoy

Introduced over 126 years ago by the Lever brothers to aid the battle against Cholera, Lifebuoy found itself back to its roots in the face of COVID-19. Recognizing the critical role the brand had to play in this battle, Lifebuoy was amongst the first handwashing brands to prove 99.9% effectiveness against the virus. This placed the brand firmly as a critical foot solider in this fight. Lifebuoy released public service announcements (PSAs) across 17 countries in a span of 72 hours, emerging as one of the fastest brands on the frontlines, putting purpose to practice. A household name in Indonesia for 86 years, Lifebuoy educated more than a 100 million individuals on the importance of hand hygiene through their iconic Hand Washing Program in 2020.

Highlights

14.1 million
video completes
6.85 million
Indonesians reached
1.1 million
website visits driven
13.7%
users checked the product page made a purchase
InMobi Case Study

At the onset of COVID-19, we were quick to understand the role Lifebuoy will have to play in fighting this deadly virus. Yet, eleven months into the pandemic and high awareness, we saw a slipping of best practices amongst citizens. We partnered with InMobi to address this unique challenge. We combined the power of real-time consumer insights to arrive at impactful personalized messaging which could be scaled programmatically. We are thrilled with the final results, having reached over 6 million Indonesians in the span of 8 short weeks

Mulyarasti Soehoed
Mulyarasti Soehoed
Senior Brand Manager, Lifebuoy, Unilever

The Objective

Global awareness about the pandemic was at an all-time high when the Indonesian archipelago hit its first peak with 176,000 active cases in February 2021 - over eleven months after the first recorded case in the country. Precautionary measures seemed to start slipping away and were no longer second nature to citizens across Indonesia. According to the USAID IUWASH Plus Formative Research 2018, 2 out of 3 Indonesians was their hands only with water and no soap. Lifebuoy recognized that it had a critical role to play during this challenging time, but the brand understood that generic Public Service Announcements (PSAs) were no longer making the impact required. Instead, the brand embarked on an ambitious journey with the goal of personalizing the awareness program to reflect the on-ground reality of each Indonesian. Each ad needed to be personalized based on a variety of dynamic elements including the province each user lived in, the number of cases in the region, the daily habits of citizens in the region, and the persona of each user, amongst many other factors.

The Objective

The Solution

Lifebuoy recognized that in order to make true impact, it needed to reach Indonesians on the medium they spent most of their time on, mobile. By partnering with InMobi, the brand took a full-funnel approach to identify the right users, understand their circumstances, engage with them through relevant communication and encourage them to practice the right safety measures – all with the power of in-app programmatic advertising. Clearly, in order to make this campaign a success, the brand would need to marry multiple sources of data to build effective communication and drive definitive action. To meet this objective, Lifebuoy arrived at the COVID Action Readiness Evaluator or C.A.R.E. which combined a multitude of data sources including claimed user behaviour, observed user behaviour, growth in local cases and much more.

The Solution

Step #1: Driving Real-time Consumer Insights

 

 

  

 

 

Lifebuoy leveraged the power of InMobi Pulse, the leading mobile consumer intelligence platform, to run weekly surveys across six key regions in Indonesia: Jakarta, East Kalimantan, Bali, North Sumatra, Riau, and West Sumatra. The survey was based on five key indicators:  

 

 

 

 

With participation from over 62.000 respondents in just 8-weeks, the survey helped Lifebuoy understand evolving behaviour week-on-week. Apart from this claimed behaviour by Indonesians, the brand also considered observed behaviour by working with InMobi’s Audience Intelligence Platform to evaluate footfall in leisure destinations across each province. 

By combining these sources of truth, Lifebuoy arrived at the C.A.R.E Preparedness Score, ranging from -4 to +4, for each region. This score was based on active surveys which helped understand individual habits and passive date which helped understand group behaviour to form insights that are uniquely available only on InMobi’s platforms. 

In addition to the preparedness score, the brand also closely tracked the growth in new cases across the 6 provinces. 

 

 

 

 

By analyzing these independent sources of date, Lifebuoy was able to leverage these insights for the following purposes:  

- Use these sources to aid data-driven decision-making on-brand messaging in provinces 

- Use these sources to aid data-driven decision making on community distribution of products in provinces 

Step #2: Defining the Target Audience  

In order to set the campaign up for success, Lifebuoy identified four key audience segments using InMobi Audiences to reach critical influencers across households as a part of this initiative. The identified audiences were young mothers, older moms, single millennial females, and single millennial males. The brand chose to reach out to these four key audience segments across six separate regions in Indonesia. By doing so, the brand engaged with key decision-makers across different types of households, be it among family-based or singles-based setups. 

Step #3: Delivering Personalized Messaging at Scale 

Having identified 4 different audience segments across 6 regions, Lifebuoy chose to personalise ads based on the C.A.R.E Preparedness Score and the case growth numbers in each region.  

 

 


 

The ads focused on 3 key messages:  

1. Social Distancing Measures  

2. Handwashing Measures 

3. And Overall COVID Preparedness  

Taking into account the several factors that determined the local reality including the region including the COVID preparedness score, the caseload, and the target group they were reaching, Lifebuoy generated 72 unique video ads as a part of this mobile-first programmatic campaign. Each persona received a unique ad reflecting the realities of their surroundings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When users clicked on the video, they were redirected to a webpage where users could purchase a whole range of Lifebuoy products which could help them keep safe during challenging times. 

 

 

 

 

In addition to this campaign, the brand also donated 425 handwashing stations across key cities in association with the National Disaster Management Association to combat COVID-19 and encourage healthy handwashing habits among the citizens of Indonesia.  

The Results

The campaign drove incredible results for Lifebuoy, reaching millions of Indonesians across the country encouraging them to prioritize their health and safety in the face of COVID-19.
The Results

Yet what was truly phenomenal to see was that over time the case load in 4 key provinces, Riau, West Sumatra, Bali, North Sumatra, began to decline week-on-week as the C.A.R.E Preparedness Score results improved, thus showcasing how innovative and data-led marketing can drive true on-ground impact, by putting purpose to practice.
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