The Hindu Business Line : When being ‘bindaas’ matters

The winning team: (From left to right) Shikha Arora, Gunjan Bagga and Ramnika Jain. (Behind) Dilip Yadav, Branch Head, CVWS, New Delhi (left), and Atul Ahluwalia, Regional Head (North), CVWS.

Sravanthi Challapalli

Remember the old TV commercial where a customer walks into a pharmacy and breaks into a sweat and a stutter trying to ask for condoms? Or more recently, when Amitabh Bachchan’s character in the movie Cheeni Kum faces a similar fate? It’s this discomfiture that a recent award-winning campaign decided to tackle head on.

In 2003, a study found that sales of condoms in eight States in the North, which accounted for 45 per cent of the national market – Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand – had declined steadily. Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick (CVWS), in association with a USAID project Private Sector Partnership-One, ICICI Bank and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, devised projects to address this decline. The first phase of the project, begun in 2004, focused on married couples and had ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’ as its slogan, exhorting the men to care for the sexual health of their partners. This year, the campaign moved to dealing with a cause of the problem – embarrassment which obstructed people from asking for the contraceptives at retail outlets, hence the slogan ‘Condom Bindaas Bol’ (Say ‘Condom’ Freely). This campaign to promote the consistent use of co ndoms as part of safe sex and family planning practices won for CVWS the 2007 United Nations Grand Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Relations.

Research revealed that condoms are a taboo subject. Discussion on the issue was almost always uncomfortable and this attitude could hinder the growth of awareness about HIV, AIDS and family planning. A strategy had to be found to “normalise” condoms, position it as a matter-of-fact product, which meant that people shouldn’t cringe when it was mentioned, says Dilip Yadav, Branch Head, CVWS, New Delhi. Using the slogan ‘Condom Bindaas Bol’, the campaign aimed to convey two messages: ‘condom’ is not a bad word and its usage should be discussed freely; and it’s meant for everyone, not just individuals in high-risk groups.

The campaign objectives were to increase total private sector sales of condoms, stagnating at 201 million pieces across the eight Indian target states. However, this was easier said than done, especially when the connotations were those of promiscuousness. But CVWS, whose motto is ‘Advocacy starts here’, set about trying to find advocates to highlight its clients’ objective. It also entrusted the job to three of its women executives. As Atul Ahluwalia, Regional Head (North & East India), CVWS, puts it, “Men speaking about condoms doesn’t have the same kind of shock value.” “And you could tell them, when a woman isn’t embarrassed to mention it, why would you?” says Ramnika Jain, one of the three-women team, and Account Director at CVWS.

Ramnika and her colleagues, Shikha Arora, Account Executive and Gunjan Bagga, Account Manager, pursued three sets of advocates: celebrities, chemists and media entities. It was a tough endeavour: All groups took time to warm up to the cause. Several celebrities, even those considered forward-thinking, felt it would affect their image. There were times when celebrities agreed to endorse the campaign but developed cold feet at the last minute. Female celebrities needed their husbands’ permission to endorse the cause. The all-women team had to encounter several naughty smiles. Even chemists in these States, and not just customers, were found to be shy about the subject.

“I still remember the day when I first started working on this campaign and for the first time uttered the word ‘condoms’ in office - everyone looked at me as if I was an alien from outer space. They say charity starts at home; breaking the ice with my colleagues and making them understand the need for awareness on the issue was the beginning and from that day to today it’s like ‘Condom bindaas bol’ all over our office,” says Gunjan.

Persevering paid off, with results exceeding expectations. “Somewhere, I feel it had to do with our belief and comfort level with the issue, and that helped us bring partners on board,” says Ramnika.

According to CVWS, the campaign managed to increase the volume of sales by 6.4 per cent during the project period as against a target of 4 per cent. The value of commercial condom brands sold through retail outlets increased 10.3 per cent (CAGR). Consistent use of condoms with spouse (among married men) grew 12 per cent, from 32 per cent to 44 per cent, and from 75 per cent to 80 per cent among those with non-regular partners.

The number of those who believed that condoms are not meant only for high-risk sexual behaviour increased by 16 per cent, from 54 per cent to 70 per cent.

CVWS used famous television celebrities such as Shekhar Suman, Rohit Roy and Palash Sen who worked pro bono to issue public service messages on TV.

A lot of film stars are associated with the AIDS cause, so the team stayed away from them because this project’s scope was larger — it wasn’t dealing with just high-risk sexual behaviour. TV stars familiar to family audiences through soap operas and comedy shows would get the twin messages of safe sex and population control.

Gradually, the team managed to enthuse the chemists - some even created their own POP material and one even branded his store as a ‘Condom bindaas bol’ pharmacy. A consumer-and-retailer contest aimed to strip away the discomfort with the subject.

A slew of new media were pressed into service. A viral video mailer provided a scenario of how a shy customer is encouraged by a retailer to ask for a condom. The names used to address the customers were commonly used Indian names – more than 50 mailers with 50 different names were used.

The campaign TV commercial, made by ad agency Lowe, was podcast on YouTube, and links were e-mailed to media, the advertising community, corporates and the general public. CVWS also created a CBB community on Orkut, and conducted an SMS drive to vote the CBB campaign as “My Story of the Day” on a major news channel.

Says Anand Verdhan Sinha, Country Director, PSP-One, “The campaign has been 360 degrees in a true sense – it used a mix of traditional and non-traditional media vehicles innovatively to deliver one single significant role by putting together solid strategy backed by impeccable execution.”

It’s not the first time that CVWS India is handling a project of this nature. It has been working on other USAID projects, including one on propagating the use of ORS (oral rehydration solution) for which it won a PR Week award in 2005, the first Indian agency to win the gold.

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