DOMESTOS UNILEVER

CASE STUDY SUMMARY:

The brief was to launch Domestos - named Vim in Vietnam - a germ-kill toilet bleach in Vietnam, where the toilet cleaning category was nonexistent. Most households didn’t see the need to use a toilet cleaner. The only thing that people were looking for was a clean-looking toilet, a job for which plain water was good enough.  

Domestos/Vim is a toilet cleaner built to kill invisible germs. Since people didn’t believe in the need to kill something they couldn’t see - toilet germs - and which was the brand’s only strength - we had to create something else that would make people stop and realize that they needed proper toilet hygiene habits. We found out that the one issue that all Vietnamese people cared about was their children’s education and future. But in Vietnam, the public-school toilets were appalling and jeopardized their children’s success. 

Our approach consisted of highlighting the poor public school sanitation in the country and setting out to do something about it. We highlighted the poor public school sanitation in the country and set out to do something about it. We declared we would build 100 toilets in public schools in Vietnam in just 4 weeks. We asked people to donate towards this mission as we learned that when people pay for education they tend to listen.

RESULTS:

• With one billboard in Ho Chi Minh City, we reached 80% of the nation. 

• We raised enough money to build 350 toilets instead of our target of 100.

• Thousands of students organized a march in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in the name of clean toilets in school for all. 

• VTV - Vietnam’s largest TV channel - broadcast a 6-minute segment covering our campaign. And every leading media publication followed the march and the issue of clean toilets in school in Vietnam. 

• We generated US$225k worth of free media against US$50k of paid media.   

AWARDS:

• This digital CSR campaign won two Gold at the 2010 Asian Marketing Effectiveness (AME) Award for Best Small Budget Campaign and Best Idea.

Note: I was the lead Strategic Planner on the project at Mullen Lowe Vietnam, reporting to the Head of Planning and working together with Account Management, Creative and Production specialists.