Cannes Contenders 2018: Mediacom

Believe your entry deserves a Lion? Send us the work and the case

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With the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2018 just about a month away, Campaign India returns with its 'Cannes Contender' series.

The premise is:

How much time really does a Cannes juror get to understand a case or piece of work s/he hasn't come across before?

Too little. It's up to us to help them get acquainted with the good work prior. We present here entries from Indian/South Asian agencies that their creators believe will be in contention for Lions at the 2018 International Festival of Creativity.

Mediacom has two such entries.

Whisper #WingsToFly

More than 100 million adolescent girls (12-14 years old) in India are at risk of dropping out of school, because of the stigma surrounding menstruation. With minimal dialogue about menstrual hygiene either at school or home & due to the taboo nature of the subject, this is a shame-filled reality they quietly endure. When a girl misses school due to period, it puts her behind her male classmates by more than half a year (200 days). And that’s the magnitude of this setback.

Being the backbone of her family, an Indian mother is willing to provide her daughter education and nutrition. Whisper launched a campaign – WingsToFly, where to remedy this problem, they decided to convince the mother. The objective was to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene and educate Indian women about the importance of using sanitary pads. They set out to make mothers aware of the stakes involved - the everlasting impact of missing school during period, due to no access to sanitary protection, on her daughter’s progress and future. They created WingsToFly - India’s largest Menstruation Camp, to break all barriers, which hold a woman back from using a sanitary pad for herself or for her daughter. An idea, a camp, a one-stop solution/answer to all her worries and apprehensions surrounding periods. They started with understanding the influencer, not the consumer. They also joined hands with health experts, gynaecologists and influencers celebrating the drive. Product counselors also demonstrated how to use a pad, showcasing it’s benefits over cloth.

They engaged with three million+ women through the initiative, one on one with 10,500 mothers through the camps across Maharashtra. Never had a Female care brand seen such a huge participation in one state. Whisper has set out to safeguard lives and futures of 10+ million girls in 2018 across 3 more states.

Gillette Bachelor of Shaving

India is the fastest growing economy in the world consisting of 70 per cent of rural population, but merely 15 per cent of them are behind India’s work force. Low employability rate and repeated rejection in Job interviews after graduation led Young Indian rural graduates to Confidence Deficit, limiting India’s growth Story. The stakes are even more higher when more than 30 million college graduates attempting to enter India’s job market every year, the competition is massive. And ironically, even though graduates from impoverished, rural areas often do disproportionately better on their university tests than other graduates, the job hunt is often unsuccessful for rural graduates. They are unaware of professional possibilities and often lack the critical social skills like etiquette, personal grooming and interview ability to gain their first job.

Gillette, the grooming expert epitomize confidence over 100 years, wanted to improve employability and instill confidence in Rural youth’s life. For the same, Gillette created the World’s Largest College Outreach Program. The Gillette Bachelor of Shaving presented workshops in CV/ resume writing, Career Counselling, Grooming, and Interview Skills, giving rural young men the fighting chance to build confidence, develop social skills and try Gillette Guard razor. To inculcate Gillette’s values of confidence & importance of grooming in rural youth’s life and also drive awareness of Gillette Guard, the specially designed razor for Rural India. The Gillette Bachelor Of Shaving prepares rural Indian Graduates for Life. It was designed to improve the employability of rural Indian Graduates and give them a fighting chance to succeed. Improving the employability of rural youth was a critical, long-term growth opportunity for Gillette. Gillette stepped in to prepare graduates for the real life in a way that no academic curriculum did. Local celebrity engagement helped to drive reach and awareness, and generated massive free, earned media coverage.

In terms of impact, literally the lives of hundreds of thousands of students wore touched and improved. The program is the start of giving an entire generation a chance they otherwise could have missed.