Good Knight goes all out to fight dengue

With the new campaign 'Subah bolo Good Knight', Godrej's mosquito repellent brand Good Knight creates an effective case for itself by urging consumers to use the product during daytime to prevent dengue.

Last Wednesday, residents of Delhi, Mumbai and some other cities, woke up to a Good Knight call, or were at least urged to do so by a full-page ad in leading national dailies. A cleverly executed copy that read "Subha bolo Good Knight", presented Good Knight, the mosquito repellent brand from Godrej, as a simple, yet effective means of dengue prevention.

But, will it succeed? #Tellafaqs!

Can mosquito repellent brands change consumer habits and get people to use
the product during daytime? #Tellafaqs!

— afaqs! (@afaqs) November 6, 2015

Conceptualised by JWT India, the multimedia campaign for Good Knight began with a digital teaser and a contest titled '
Subah kaun aaya
', for which the correct answer was dengue mosquitoes. The activity was based on insights from a
Godrej Consumer Products and AC Nielsen study
conducted in 16 Indian states to assess perceptions and awareness about dengue. The research revealed that 90 per cent Indians are unaware that mosquitoes that primarily bite during the day cause the disease and only 8 per cent use any repellents during the daytime when dengue mosquitoes are most active.

These findings led to the launch of 'Subah Bolo Good Knight,' a nationwide awareness campaign that aims to reach out to kids across the country and sensitise parents to adopt preventive measures for dengue.

Sunil Kataria, GCPL business head, India and SAARC, informs, "India is today the epicentre of the global epidemic of dengue, harbouring the largest number of dengue infections in the world. The disease has become hyper-endemic in the country, and its incidence has increased 30 times in the past five decades. Considering the scenario, we took this initiative."

According to Kataria, Good Knight has always been an empathetic brand, making its point through children. "Mothers are our primary TG (target group), which is why getting across our message through kids works. Besides, we did not want to be preachy. Fortunately, we also found a quirky tagline in our brand name itself," adds Kataria, discussing the campaign execution.

The dengue 'fever'

With the 'Subah Bolo Good Knight' campaign, Good Knight is quite visibly trying to create an effective case for itself by urging consumers to use the product during daytime to prevent dengue. The brand has traditionally worked towards evening and night time, but is now making attempts to widen the scope of usage.

"The primary TG for the campaign", explains Kataria, "are the existing customers, housewives and mothers. While they are already using our product in the evening and night time, with dengue lurking around, they must extend this habit to mornings and beyond." The initiative also addresses schools, NGOs, and government bodies.

But, Good Knight is not the only mosquito repellent brand to have contracted the 'dengue Fever'. In the home insecticide space, it competes with SC Johnson's All Out and Reckitt Benckiser's Mortein. Both brands are also vying for the daytime usage window.

All Out had, in 2013, launched a campaign '
Fight dengue for Payal
' in association with Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI). Bollywood celebrity Sonali Bendre and Payal, a 12-year-old girl from Jaipur, were the brand ambassadors. The 360-degree campaign had a number of collaterals including a TVC which urged the audience to use All Out in the mornings.

Last year, Mortein NaturGuard also rolled out the #UandMeAgainstDengue campaign. The campaign encompassed both on-ground and digital activities, aimed at spreading awareness about the disease and involving communities and societies against it. To get to the heart of the problem, Mortein had taken the activity to over 130 schools and 170 RWAs across six cities in India.

According to a
Euromonitor study
on home insecticides in India, strong promotional activities from players, and educational campaigns by the government together contributed to consumer awareness in 2014. Consumers are, therefore, opting for products which can protect them from the perils of mosquito bites. Products with instant relief, effective for longer duration, pleasant smell, and competitive pricing are gaining attention amongst Indian consumers. All this, combined with the availability of an assortment of formats, is expected to push value sales of home insecticides to rise at a CAGR of 4 per cent at constant 2014 prices over the forecast period, reaching Rs 48.0 billion by 2019.

The report also states that with a value share of 52 per cent, Godrej consumer products continued to lead home insecticides in 2014 in all categories. Commenting on the competition, Kataria further claims that Good Knight has been consistently growing at a rate 1.5 times the category growth.

The media push

The 360-degree campaign will run across television, print, radio, digital (a microsite) and social media. Godrej aims to reach out to 10 million school-going kids across the country through on-ground activations. Additionally, it will tap rural markets with the use of mobile marketing and Facebook. The company is also planning to execute a range of below-the-line activities focussing on around 30,00,000 rural outlets through outdoor billboards, posters, displays and in-store signage. In the rural areas, it will work closely with shopkeepers who will help the brand reach out to consumers.

The campaign kick-started on print and will be sustained by television and digital mediums. It will last for a period of one year, running alongside other product campaigns. During the course, the brand will keep refreshing its digital creatives regularly. "Our aim is to educate people and create in them a long-term habit. This will take time to achieve," states Kataria.

To meet the stated aim, the brand's creative (JWT), media (Madison) and digital (Schbang) partners are ensuring that the campaign engages its audience optimally and is persuasive at the same time. On one hand, conversations around #SubahBoloGoodKnight are being generated on social media, and on the other, Good Knight is using newspapers, a medium exclusive to mornings, to reinforce its message of using the product during daytime. The otherwise one-way print medium is being made interactive through a contest where readers are being asked to spot and share the print ads to win some goodies.

A perfect solution?

Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., a brand consultancy, says that while the idea behind the campaign is to "make hay on dengue, it has been executed intelligently and hence, there's no hint of opportunism". "As Good Knight is a solution-oriented brand, this is the best possible way to create awareness about it," he asserts.

Taking about the creatives, Bijoor says, "They are typically digital; simple and low quality, but effective nevertheless." To him, the campaign is a tactical one, if only the brand can find ways of extending it to other situations. "As far as a mosquito repellent brand is concerned, every disease is an opportunity, as well as a responsibility", he states.