How Canesten took the gamified mobile ad route to connect with its TG

Canesten is the world’s No. 1 Antifungal Brand. As a global expert in antifungal space, Canesten understands both the functional and the emotional journey of consumers when they suffer from skin fungal issues. Recently, the brand launched a new campaign, ‘Dimaag Lagao, Rash pe Canesten Lagao’, to create awareness and address the fungal problems, especially among young active women and put an end to their discomfort by using the expert solution Canesten.

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The ‘Dimaag Lagao, Rash pe Canesten Lagao’ campaign connects with these young active women in a quirky and refreshing way and encourages them to stop using talcum powder on fungal skin infections and instead use expert anti-fungal solutions like Canesten to treat the root cause itself.

In conversation with Adgully for their column Talking insights, Ritu Mittal, Head of Marketing and Digital, Bayer Consumer Health Division in India, speaks about the new campaign, creating a connect with young active women, addressing the problem of skin fungal infections, and more.

There are quite a few leading brands such as Candid, Abzorb, etc., in the anti-fungal space. How have you differentiated Canesten and positioned your brand in this growing market?

Canesten is the world’s No. 1 Antifungal Brand. As a global expert in antifungal space, Canesten understands both the functional and the emotional journey of consumers when they suffer from skin fungal issues. A study initiated by Canesten among Indian women between 20 and 35 years, revealed that 94% of women suffered from one or other symptom of skin fungal infection at least once in the year and 50% of them chose to use ineffective solutions like talcum powder leading to continued discomfort.

With our launch campaign, ‘Dimaag Lagao, Rash pe Canesten Lagao’, we encourage these young active women to end their discomfort by choosing the expert solution Canesten, which helps treat skin fungal issues by acting at the root and also helps prevent recurrence.

What is the objective of your film and who are you targeting with your new campaign and what kind of markets are you looking for?

Women who lead an active lifestyle are more prone to fungal skin infections given the hot-humid climate conditions in India. Our new campaign, ‘Dimaag Lagao, Rash pe Canesten Lagao’, connects with these young active women in a quirky and refreshing way and encourages them to stop using talcum powder on fungal skin infections and instead use expert anti-fungal solutions like Canesten to treat the root cause itself.

We have launched the campaign pan India across multiple digital touchpoints, including YouTube and social media channels to reach with these young women at relevant points. We also launched a gamified mobile ad leveraging AI to engage with these young women.

Did you conduct any research to draw your insight for the campaign? Could you elaborate the creative thoughts for the campaign and what are your expectations from this campaign?

In Indian homes, talcum powder is an intuitive choice for all skin problems –sweat, prickly heat or rash. Therefore, when a skin rash happens, people reach out for a talcum powder without any conscious deliberation or evaluation of it being the right solution and thereby end up dealing with the continued discomfort.

To understand the incidence of fungal infections among Indian women in the age group between 20 and 35 years, a study was initiated by Canesten and conducted by ‘Brand Eigen Insights and Analytics’ among women in urban India across all zones during the period of April-May 2022. Interestingly, the study found that 94% of women have suffered from at least one fungal infection in the last one year. Itching was the most common anti-fungal infection reported by 61% of women, and among these sufferers, 67% wants to address it as a top priority. Almost 50% of women used prickly heat/ talcum powder as an immediate remedial solution for the infection.

At Bayer, we are continuously working on our vision of making self-care accessible for all Indians. We want to encourage women to stop being uncomfortable and hiding fungal skin infections, rather treat them with Canesten and live their lives to the fullest.

Some of the brands in this category are going the celeb way to promote the brand. Was there any thought of leveraging a well-known celebrity to ride on their equity?

Our campaign idea, ‘Dimaag Lagao, Rash pe Canesten Lagao’, leverages relatable everyday situations in a quirky way to highlight the absurdity in the usage of talcum for skin fungal infections. We felt that this idea is best narrated through real life consumers like you and me who are the hero of their own stories and have more relatable struggles and problems in their everyday.

The focus is on the digital media to reach your audiences. How do you plan to measure the effectiveness of the campaign?

The objective of this campaign is to drive awareness and trial for Canesten among young active women in urban India making it the go-to choice for preventing and treating skin fungal infections. The best success measure for the campaign will be consumer love in the form of brand adoption and trial and that’s what we are looking for.