How Sensodyne is leveraging onground outreach for greater consumer engagement

Team Sensodyne recently planned approximately 500 dental camps to create awareness about basics of dental hygiene and oral care in 70 cities in all four regions of India, targeting around 5,000 people. Also, in partnership with over 100 dental colleges and approximately 3,000 dental clinics in 85 cities, Sensodyne has planned free dentist consultations for around 1 lakh+ consumers across India. In partnership with Practo, team Sensodyne is targeting to provide free dental consultations to almost 30,000 people.

In conversation with Adgully, Bhawna Sikka, Category Head – Oral Healthcare, Haleon, elaborates on Sensodyne’s plans to address oral hygiene in the country, especially tooth sensitivity, increasing outreach through onground events, using radio to create greater engagement with consumers, and more.

What are the objectives and ideation behind Sensodyne’s recent pan-India initiative?

As a company in the oral care industry, we have observed that awareness regarding oral health symptoms is quite limited in this country, resulting in poor access to dental health services. Data indicates that there is only one dentist available for every 10,000 people in India. To address this issue, we have taken on a mission to create greater awareness and educate people on small steps to improve their oral health. As part of this mission, we launched a campaign on World Oral Day to increase access to dental health and encourage people to proactively visit a dentist for regular checkups.

What percentage of India is now aware of the problems they are facing around tooth sensitivity?

According to our research, approximately 70% of the people in the country know that they have tooth sensitivities. We have been in the market for 10 years, and we have also spent a lot of time and effort in making people understand what tooth sensitivity is like. It is a sharp shooting pain that you feel when you have something very hot or cold.

What is the core proposition of Sensodyne’s campaign?

This wasn’t a brand campaign. The sole objective was the concern for the oral health of our consumers. The mission of our organisation is to improve the everyday health of people. Our goal is to promote education and awareness about oral health, which unfortunately has not been given the level of importance it deserves in India despite efforts by the government and other brands. Oral health is the gateway to one’s overall health, and the Indian Dental Association reports that people in this country, on an average, only brush once a day, when, in fact, maintaining good oral health requires small actions such as brushing twice a day for two minutes each time.

In what ways is Sensodyne creating awareness about oral health?

We have gone beyond just promoting oral health awareness and have partnered with Practo to make it easier for people to access dental services. By scanning a barcode, people can easily book appointments with dental camps. In addition, we facilitated access to dental services for as many people as possible, by conducting 500 dental camps across 70 cities and partnering with 100 dental colleges to offer similar services. We also launched a radio campaign with three popular FM stations to further raise awareness. Our efforts aimed to reach 100,000 consumers and help them receive dental check-ups.

In the actual dental consultation, the endeavour is to build a significant reach in terms of creating awareness and education of the common symptoms that could be oral health issues. We tied up with the most popular city dentists, and we also tied up with 7 popular social media influencers, each with a significant reach of their own, for ‘how you can take care of your oral health’. These 7 influencers were within the domain of fitness and health and nutrition and people look up to them for health and advice. Right now, all the data is still coming in from at least over a million people through just the broadcasting of the message.

What makes radio a preferred advertising platform in the digital era?

As we know, the rhythm of life is back. People are communicating and listeners are back on radio. In cities like Bangalore and Chennai, the listenership is in 6 figures. Anyone who wants to put a message out there and reach the maximum number of people, radio is an effective medium. Therefore, it made sense for us to be present on radio. Radio listening works in comparison to TV and gives you a longer window to interact. You can talk for a longer time and you can have a two-way communication as well.

How is Sensodyne reaching out to the Tier 3 market?

For the dental camps that we set up in 70 cities, Tier 3 was very much a part of our campaign. We were not limited to metros alone, but a lot of our marketing strategies have been to reach out to these smaller towns and cities.

How does Sensodyne differentiate itself from other brands?

Within the toothpaste category, Sensodyne has been unique in terms of the problem we can solve, which is tooth sensitivity. We have a very single-minded focus – to make people aware of what tooth sensitivity is.