A Green GoodbyeBackground: India is a land of varied cultures, religions and festivals. Ganesh Utsav is one such festival, celebrated widely. The public celebration of Ganesh Utsav started in Pune 125 years ago and the city continues to be the epicentre of festivities.

Unfortunately, more than 75 lakh Ganesha idols are immersed leaving tonnes of residue. Worse, since an estimated 90% of these idols are made up of Plaster of Paris (PoP), the residue is also non-degradable. Post-immersion, according to state government reports, water bodies in and around Pune report an 100X increase in heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead, which are known to affect nerves and kidneys. Creating artificial ponds for idol immersion may have saved fresh water from contamination but the residue, when buried, remains a major cause of soil pollution.

Being a conscientious corporate, Vodafone was keen to offer a solution that stopped this enviornmental degradation. The company’s proprietary research in Pune too suggested that residents were not only looking for solutions to stop pollution of water bodies but also seeking convenient solutions that allowed them to continue with their social/religious practices.

In early 2017, the telecom major partnered with the Pune-based National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) and developed a sustainable solution to this problem. The scientists at NCL successfully demonstarted that if Ammonium Bicarbonate is poured into a waterbody that contains PoP, a chemical reaction yields Ammonium Sulphate, which is a popular fertiliser, and Calcium Carbonate, the main ingredient of chalk and

cement. Elated at this find, Vodafone showed interest in creating several Ammonium Bicarbonate-rich artifical ponds in Pune. The scientific breakthrough and the good intent notwithstanding, Vodafone realised that raising awareness levels about this novel approach would be an onerous task.

PR Objective: The retained PR consultancy was asked to create a Pune-specific campaign that would create awareness about the harmful effects of PoP and emphasise on the importance of chemically treating PoP idols.

Strategy: Together with Vodafone’s Corporate Communications team, we decided to link the eco-friendly initiative with the 125th anniversary of Ganesh Utsav celebrations in the city. We felt that rekindling the memories of a great heritage would drive a better emotional connect with Pune’s residents.

The second aspect of our strategy was to reach out to office-bearers of resident welfare associations and housing societies as influencers. We were confident that once they became aware of the harmful effects of PoP and the scientific breakthrough achieved by the Vodafone-NCL team, they would become eco-warriors in their own right.

The third element of the strategy was to create an exhaustive outreach programme, involving the traditional media, new media, social media and on-ground activation. We decided to harness the power of the media – especially regional language publications and local news portals. A part of this strategy was to organise on-ground events and invite media and local Influencers including Facebook groups, Instagrammers, Twitter Influencers, local news portals.

Execution: We kick-started the PR campaign in early July 2017, when the PR consultancy created a database of all the major housing societies around Kharadi, Kalyani Nagar, Wakdewadi, Aundh, JM Road, Karwe Road, Hirabaug and NIBM Road. We followed this up by organising several meetings and workshops with key RWA/housing society representatives.

Through these office-bearers, we contacted thousands of residents through mobile and Emails. Subsequently, focused workshops were held, where scientific demonstrations were given for the benefit of the respondents. Here, we reiterated the harmful effects of immersing PoP idols in regular waterbodies, and made people aware of Vodafone’s efforts to create several Ammonium Bicarbonate-rich artifical ponds. We also shared the positive impact of adopting such eco-friendly practices, highlighting that farmers would receive fertilizers free-of-cost. These discussions were further strengthened with installation of billboards near the entry points of these societies. We also circulated specially-designed Listicles, Infographs, and Images.

In the first week of August 2017, we organised a Press Conference, announcing the ‘Vodafone Eco-Ponds’, and issued a Media Release. Thereafter, the consultancy launched an aggressive media and Influencer outreach programme across Pune. Workshops on the benefits of Vodafone Eco-Ponds was a highlight of this programme. Digital outreach included reaching out to Social Media Influencers (>2000 following across platforms), Local News portals (daily traffic >3000+ visitors), Hybrid Media, relevant Facebook groups (>2000 members), Instagram (>2000 followers)and WhatsApp groups (>100 members) and their administrators. The engagement with the identified Influencers also included categorisation and shortlisting of the preferred modes of news and discussions of the local populace. Our Digital PR involved identification of ongoing online conversations, digital influencers commenting or leading such discussions, and keywords such as environment, pollution, green, eco-friendly etc.

Towards our strategy of engaging the media and leveraging their reach, the consultancy recommended Vodafone choose a weekend to break the campaign. This was so suggested as the general public tends to be more receptive to social media posts during relaxed weekends. The agency issued customized platform-specific content material besides organizing media visits for increased awareness.

Vodafone’s move to tie up with the Pune Municipal Corporation and its association with NCL added further credibility to the exercise.

Evaluation: The message of ‘Eco-Friendly Visarjan’ was well covered across national, local and hybrid media platforms including print, radio, TV channels, leading digital and social media platforms.

Our media outreach generated more than 40 impressions in English, Hindi and Marathi, reaching an estimated 10 Crore people (OTS).

Brand Vodafone established a direct reach with over 5,000+ households, 13,000 store visits and 3,100+ Visarjans in a span of 10 days.

An immediate impact was seen on the overall brand score with a 5% rise in top-of-mind and spontaneous awareness (source: Vodafone). Association with the brand also grew stronger as there was a 3.5% rise in the Brand Love parameter for the stipulated period.

Social media numbers:

Our teaser posts on Facebook and Twitter, regular updates on workshops, live tweets and Facebook posts on festival days yielded 15,000+ ‘like’s, 1,200 comments, 2,300 shares, 6 Million impressions, 850+ tweets. The videos received 640,000 organic views.

The campaign on the opening day Trended on Twitter reaching a top position of no. 4. Celebrities such as actor Raveena Tandon tweeted about the initiative pushing its reach further.

We generated 20 blog pieces by digital influencers.

33 Online News portals (Local, National, CSR led and Brand & Marketing) reported about the campaign.

All the conversation helped the campaign and associated keywords reach a positive SEO with the mention of ECO PONDS on Google guiding the search to the campaign.

Eco-ponds mentioned on Google guides to #GoodinGoodbyes.

In all, we reached out to approximately 15 million individuals through our social media campaign.

Last but certainly not the least, more than 13 tonnes of PoP were recycled and approximately 1 lakh litres of fertiliser were generated by this exercise.