Challenge:
Every year, Spectrum VMLY&R teams up with Colgate Pakistan to execute the Colgate Global Art Contest in thousands of schools across Pakistan. 2020, however, is far from an ordinary year. As students returned to schools after their winter break, they were soon forced back into their homes due to the Coronavirus Pandemic and government safety lockdowns. A situation arose which neither the world, nor Colgate had ever encountered before. How can the Global Art Contest be executed without a school’s space and the students’ presence?
Idea:
When the world stopped physically, it accelerated virtually, with social media and other websites enjoying unheard numbers in traffic. The picture was clear, for the first time in history, the Global Art Contest will be held online! The digital team was ready to take this challenge head on.
Objective:
- To promote Global Art Contest via a digital marketing campaign
- Encourage health oral care habits in children with an interest in art
- Attract relevant audiences with optimized digital media strategies
- Get maximum entries for the contest from all over Pakistan
- Double-down on social media marketing
- Achieve unbeatable user engagement and interest
Insight:
Although the Global Art Contest is usually a campaign on its own, with themes surrounding optimism, art and children, it needed an extra punch this time around. The canvas of Global Art Contest shifted from schools to homes and with it brought the message of Colgate; Smiles, Optimism and good oral care habits. We brought all of that in big idea: A Canvas of Smiles
The Campaign:
Phase 1: Awareness
The Global Art Contest (GAC) was announced on Colgate Pakistan’s social media channels with a hype campaign along with the launch of their official website:https://colgate.com.pk/artcontest/. The primary audience, parents, specifically mothers, were targeted with an awareness campaign informing them about GAC’s shift to an online space, the process to submit their artwork and the rewards for the winners.
We built the Canvas of Smiles platform, incorporating it into every piece of communication, conventional and digital alike. This resulted in curiosity among the relevant audience as to a new message that was now being broadcasted with the old and familiar Global Art Contest.
Phase 2: Conversion
With our relevant audience now aware about GAC, it was now time to reel in their kids to participate by creating their artworks and submitting on the website.
Colgate and Spectrum reached out to the hundreds of schools that had been GAC participants in past years. The schools thereafter invited the parents of their students, via email, to start an art class at home and submit their entries to GAC.
Spectrum also initiated an influencer marketing campaign with local celebrities, bloggers and other big-time social media accounts. Prominent names include Sarwat Gillani of Churails fame and Hello Pakistan, one of Pakistan’s largest entertainment magazine.
The entries started rolling in, amounting to a total of 5556 received from 23 towns. From mega cities like Karachi to small towns like Lalamusa, the Global Art Contest truly became a national campaign. With the completion of the digital campaign, Global Art Contest Pakistan racked these digital stats:
Total Reach: 5,070,793
Every unique individual that has seen at least one piece of communication from GAC’s campaign.
Total Impressions: 14,888,773
The accumulated reach that the campaign achieved including multiple views/visits.
Engaged Users: 201,479
The total number of people that interacted with at least one piece of communication from GAC’s campaign.
These figures prove that for a completely new platform, in a world that’s been changed forever, team Colgate and Spectrum proved that innovation isn’t just crucial, it’s now the norm.
Phase 3: Conclusion
When the deadline closed, we were presented with yet another challenge. How to categorize, judge and inform our audience about the results. The digital copies of the artworks were sent to our local jury who selected the Top 100 and Top 12 entries after a rigorous process. The Top 12 was sent to the global jury in New York City where the very best of young artistic talent from around the world was judged on the basis of creativity, relevance to theme and the Colgate spirit of optimism! Not one, but two entries from Pakistan had the honor of being best in the world! They are now entitled to a $250 prize, a $500 school grant and a place in Colgate’s annual My Bright Smile calendar.
