While India marches ahead with the new budget and five-year plan, sadly, most of her rural areas have not seen electricity for ages. And a student initiative from HR College decided to transform this through Project Chirag. Founded two years ago, Project Chirag has been instrumental in providing Solar based electrification to over 125 villages across the country. In a bid to light up more homes, Project Chirag has collaborated with male grooming brand, Garnier Men India in a unique social campaign – ‘PowerLight a Village’.
About PowerLight a Village
The ‘PowerLight A Village’ campaign aims at creating awareness among consumers to contribute through their pledges on social media. Every like, share and comment will contribute a predetermined unit of energy. This will also be coupled with on-ground activations where men can pedal bicycles which will record the energy generated. A summation of all these activities will eventually be translated into actual energy donation through solar equipment – one solar lamp that also has an in-built mobile charging unit, 1 solar tube light and 1 solar panel to charge their equipment.
In a country like India which receives 300-325 sunny days a year, these units would help villages get continuous supply of electricity!
Leveraging social media capital
Garnier Men has roped in Foxymoron, a social media marketing and digital solutions agency, to take care of the digital execution for the campaign. As an extension to its Men Who Matter initiative, ‘PowerLight a Village’ is being driven digitally to enable the brand’s social media community to contribute virtually – yes, virtual watts!
With a whopping 1.6 million plus fans on Facebook, Garnier Men did not have to look far. Beginning March, the page admins have been creating a buzz through every update. Hard hitting facts like – 400 million Indians having no source of light other than the sun and 72,000 villages in India being plunged into darkness after sunset – set the stage initially. Soon the page shared updates from the face of Garnier Men and Bollywood actor John Abraham, asking the fans to pledge their support after revealing about the social campaign.
A Facebook app has been created for PowerLight a Village, that is being shared along with the updates. You need to ‘like’ the page to access the app, beginning your quota of energy donation. Divided into three sections – The Movement, The Contribution, and The Impact, the app with its appealing line drawing explains the concept in ‘The Movement’. The Contribution displays the virtual watts generated by the campaign in real time through the energy meter.
Garnier Men Lights Up Homes With ‘PowerLight A Village’
You can contribute more by clicking ‘I want to powerlight a village’ and select from any of your Facebook or Twitter login to share about the campaign. My contribution shows the total number of watts you have generated from all the activities. The most interesting section is ‘The Impact’ which has a map showing the impact of the movement. When you zoom in, you will be able to locate villages and browse through an image gallery for every village that has been lit up.
The Garnier Men Twitter page with its 2.4K followers is also creating buzz for the campaign, since the launch by John Abraham. The page has been regularly updating with campaign updates and encouraging twitterati to join the movement with the hashtag #powerlightavillage. A contest is also being run with the hashtag #TweetAWatt where the brand is asking energy questions relating to the campaign and giving away Garnier Men gift hampers.
How cool is ‘PowerLight a Village’?
As much as CSR campaigns help in branding, this one goes far in strengthening its tagline ‘Take Care’. The men’s skincare brand has given a new meaning to ‘take care’, through the ‘PowerLight a village’ campaign. Apart from lighting up homes with no access to electricity, the brand has also managed to rope in its online community as a part of this initiative. I was particularly impressed by the reference to the community as the ‘Men who matter’, bringing in a sense of responsibility within the community.
Along with a brilliant concept, ‘PowerLight a village’ excels in its cool design and execution. The Facebook app is adorable especially for the line drawings. And an app showing your actual contribution is vital in a CSR campaign. The idea of a map to demonstrate the impact of the movement, coupled with the live energy meter make up for a good user experience.
The other thing that stood our for me is the social media buzz creation. Both the platforms, Facebook and Twitter have been extensively promoting the cause and encouraging participation from the respective community. This would further spread the word which in turn would help grow the community as well as generate more watts for the cause!
So, what do you make of ‘PowerLight a village’? Do share your thoughts with us and don’t forget to contribute your share of energy too.
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