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Colgate’s ‘Oral Health Month’ campaign with Digital Marketing

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Colgate palmolive

About Colgate’ Digital Marketing Campaign

Colgate Palmolive (India) Limited is engaged in the personal care and oral care business. Colgate Palmolive (India) is one of the leading players in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry since its inception in 1923.The Company offers various personal care products, such as soaps, cosmetics and toilet preparations. The Company’s oral care category of products includes toothpastes, toothbrushes, toothpowder, whitening products and mouthwash. Colgate’s has marketed its products in over 200 countries and territories throughout the world.

Colgate is available in almost 5.0+ million retail outlets across the country that in itself speaks volume of the sheer reach and leadership across India. Colgate India has grown to a Rs. 4000 crore plus organization and a market share of 54.7% based on market research in 2016.

Market research firm GfK Mode conducted a consumer study into oral health in India.  Interestingly, 47% of Indian population had never visited a dentist and 38% of people only visited due to a serious dental problem. The study also concluded that 90% of respondents would take advantage of a free dental check-up if given the opportunity. Clearly, regular dental check-ups are not considered in India with great seriousness. Colgate saw this as an opportunity to not only improve awareness about oral health but also ensured with this strategy to increase its market share even further.

Business Objectives & Opportunities

– Increase the market share and reach
– Improve awareness about Oral Health
– Project itself as a ‘Trusted’ brand in India
– Provide easier access to dental check-ups

Strategy

In 2004, Colgate India launched a nationwide oral health awareness campaign – ‘Oral Health Month’. This program offered free in-clinic dental check-ups and also launched the “Spreading a million smiles with a mobile” campaign to boost awareness. The later was focused on school children which meant that the message for good oral hygiene reaches families and community at large.

Oral Health Month was created by Colgate India in association with the Indian Dental Association to generate awareness of the importance of good oral hygiene. Since 1976, Colgate has worked in close alliance with the Indian Dental Association (IDA)  and invested in established itself as a household name. Over the years, these efforts from Colgate India have been recognized and in fact it has been then only company to have been chosen as India’s #1 Most Trusted Brand across all categories for four consecutive years from 2011 to 2014 by Brand Equity’s Most Trusted Brand Survey, conducted by Nielsen. Colgate India has been the only company so far to achieve this feat.

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Coming back to Oral Health Month, the campaign provided not only provided easier access to dental check-ups in the neighborhood but also contributed in identifying and preventing oral health problems before they became serious. The program provided these free in-clinic dental check-ups in over 1,300 cities and towns all over India and had a reach to remote areas as well.

Mobile Marketing

To run a campaign for this magnitude, Colgate used mobile marketing to raise awareness about the program and free local check-ups. A mobile number was promoted across mass-media touch points in India such as TV, print and retail to generate awareness about the free dental check-up centers in your locality. In order to receive more information. As a consumer, you just had to give a missed call or send a text message with pin code to the specified mobile number and immediately you would receive an IVR call.

Ads on Facebook

More recently, Colgate has set up geo-targeted campaigns on Facebook in and around the areas nearby free dental check-up centers. Hyper-targeted ads appears in the Facebook news feed of feature phone users. Colgate even embedded missed call functionality within the ad on the Facebook website so to make the experience seamless.

Google Search

Colgate exploited the customized tagging layered with geo-targeting feature within Google Search on mobile to expand its reach. It meant that when a consumer searched for a topic relating to Oral Health Month or dental check-ups, the nearest free dental check-up center would appear in the text ad at the top of the Google search results page also on their mobile device.

Results Achieved

– Colgate has increased its market share even further
– Colgate celebrates the status of #1 Trusted Brand
– Colgate has been able to generate tremendous awareness in India on Dental Care and have contributed to the society at large

Learnings

– When running a massive campaign of this magnitude, reach is a major criteria and Digital Marketing has played its role in this case to contribute to the success
– A campaign which masses can connect to is more favorable to gain momentum
– Digital Marketing has to be done across various platforms and mediums, from more traditional ways like TV Ads and newspaper Ads to Facebook, Twitter, Inbound and Outbound medium.

Digital Marketing is a very strong tool to reach out to masses and to convey the message in various innovative ways across various platforms.

Image Credits: Colgate Palmolive (India) Limited

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Ritu Arora

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