ITW Consulting's strategy to include sportswomen in Silent Performers campaign helped Haier increase SOV from 22% to 53%

Haier launched their washing machines HW100 and HW80 with a 'noiseless' feature that performs its given task of washing clothes silently. The core philosophy of Haier is ‘Inspired Living' and ITW Consulting had to identify well-known people who brought laurels to the country despite not being in the limelight but performed their task noiselessly and delivered the best.

The perfect fit for the Haier video content was found in leading sportswomen of India who earned accolades for the country on a global stage despite very little buzz, hype and frenzy.

The sportswomen were Hima Das (Arjuna Awardee sprint runner), Dipa Karmakar (Olympian artistic gymnast) and Simranjit Kaur (Indian boxer), who were titled ‘Silent Performers’. The campaign showed the stories of these sportswomen overlapping of how their silent performance resonated with the philosophy of Haier’s new washing machine with direct motion motor, which is also a silent performer but ready to deliver the best results as promised.

The content piece highlighted the fact that there are thousands of silent performers around us, be it at home in the form of a mother, outside our doorstep in the form of essential workers and several more in our day-to-day life that deliver the best without any noise.

Haier achieved a strike rate of 98% from the 'Silent Performers' campaign during the festive period and recorded exponential YoY growth in SOV (share of voice) from 22% to 53% through the campaign's positive and uplifting message that everyone are performers in their own unique way.

The film:

The insight

The campaign needed to have a connection with things that perform silently around us. ITW Consulting connected it to sports, as nothing evokes the intensity and pride of performance more than sport. While cricket, football and hockey were highly celebrated team events, the agency found the perfect fit in individual sports performers who have been performing well and bringing a lot of recognition to India under difficult conditions, despite having no big fan following, media buzz or financial support.

The idea was to portray the ‘No noise, only performance’ function of Haier’s latest washing machine and connect it with sportswomen who have successfully performed and delivered with no much noise. The ‘Silent Performers’ showcase the state of women in sports today, who for the majority of the time remain unnoticed despite making the nation proud on a global stage through incredible feats and link it back to the idea of focusing on the signal of performance by cutting out the noise. The idea showcased the spirit of winning and delivering even when nobody is watching or cheering.

Execution

ITW Consulting helped identify the sporting talent that fit the ‘No noise, only performance’ description and played an important yet crucial part in knitting the sports stars with Haier as their talent management partner for this campaign to come to life. ITW Consulting helped arrange the logistics as well as the end-to-end talent management to stitch the campaign together. The story unfolds with the athletes devoid of media and people’s attention despite their impeccable achievements but, remain strongly focused on the pursuit of their goals and passions.

It focused on the endearing relationship between sports stars and Haier’s philosophy of performing silently while becoming an inspiration for many without any immediate recognition, applause or huge amounts of media attention.

From conceptualising the idea to brainstorming the whole process and making it into a campaign, ITW Consulting was a part of the whole strategy from the start to end until it was completed. Usually, appliance commercials focus on the household or if they involve a celebrity they focus on the celebrity.

ITW Consulting executed the new Haier campaign keeping the washing machine as the main product and used sportswomen to complement it. The idea went hand-in-hand and broke both those stereotypes and eschewed the low-hanging fruit in terms of celebrity by not going with anyone from Bollywood or the world of cricket.

The appliances for the Silent Performer campaign included washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners. This targeted buyers both male and female between 30-50 years of age. Since the digital world is also an important part of marketing, the campaign was released on both television and digital, making its way into YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other video streaming apps.