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We take a look at how Colgate India uses social media to drive home messages about dental hygiene, white teeth and beautiful smiles.
Colgate India has been in the business on pushing people into taking care of their oral health and dental hygiene for several years now. Over time, they have transitioned from using television to air white smiles and put forth questions about salty toothpastes to creating digital infrastructure for virtual dentistry, helping people get video consults amidst the pandemic. Though they have been on social media platforms for a long time, Colgate India has recently begun posting more, infusing a fresh breath into their communication — as an attempt to reach more people. We take a look.
Colgate India Social Media Strategy
Colgate India is pretty new to the social media game if one were to look at the frequency of their posts. They have a fairly large audience on Facebook and Instagram. Compared to that, on Twitter, the account's reach is limited. However, leveraging the presence of the celebrities associated with them has helped them exist and stay relevant on the platform. There, it's more about having a handle that can be tagged and/or used to drive people to links about products. On Facebook and Instagram, they do get quite good engagement, shows data recorded by Qoruz.
Facebook: 2.7M Likes
Twitter: 615 Followers
Instagram: 13.9K Followers
Prominent Hashtags: #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao, #ColgateSmile, #Colgate, #WorldSmileDay #SmileSeKaroDiwaliRoshan #OralHealthMonth
Data, as captured by Qoruz, suggests that Colgate India gets about 41 Likes on average for their Facebook posts. Average Comments are about 3, the number of average Shares stands at 6. On Instagram, they get an average of 293 Likes, 9 Comments, and 2.8K Views. Their engagement rate on Instagram is about 2.21%.
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People mostly engage with Colgate India via Likes on their social media pages. Most of the conversations and posts by Colgate India are about Healthcare (52%). Other prominent content topics include Family & Parenting (17.3%), Food & Drink (11.6%), Beauty (10.5%) and Dance (8.7%).
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Celebrity Influence
Celebrities have been driving the Colgate India narrative over the years in various forms — the same trend is reflected on social media too. One can see brand ambassadors sharing the campaigns they feature in as well as Colgate amplifying the video ads made to promote the various products in their portfolio. In recent cases, faces such as Kiara Advani, Ayushmann Khurrana and Ranveer Singh can be seen on their profile.
All you need is your dazzling smile to conquer any beauty blunders or bad hair days! 😁
— Kiara Advani (@advani_kiara) December 15, 2020
Soooo excited to be associated with my favorite brand @ColgateIndia Visible White ❤️
It gives me one shade whiter teeth in just one week and with this smile, I just #DazzleWhiteDazzleRight pic.twitter.com/cuQegb1eVO
In an awareness campaign featuring Singing Dentist Milad Shadrooh, actors Manish Paul and Pranitha Subhash, and fitness trainer Yasmin Karachiwala, Colgate India had leveraged the powers of digital to reach more people — and create conversations around the importance of brushing teeth regularly and in the right way. The piece was called #BrushThemWell.
Trending Conversations
Colgate India is very selective about the trending conversations they join in. The exclusivity helps them ensure they only partake when it's something that's relevant to their brand identity. This is especially true for trending formats — they have participated in only two such major waves in the last few months. Recently, when MS Dhoni announced his retirement, Colgate India had posted a tribute post for him.
Tag us in your Colgate wali smile photos. 😀
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) January 8, 2021
#USAvsIndia #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao #TrendingFormat pic.twitter.com/5ntkwyoyB1
Festivities & Celebrations
Colgate India often puts up posts for major Indian festivals. Here, they get a chance to wish people and stay involved in their lives. Even though the frequency of posts is less, they are able to bring alive connections on celebratory occasions, spreading cheers and smiles around.
Let your hopes soar and bring a smile to your face. 😃#HappyMakarSankranti #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao pic.twitter.com/exEfkVdy4n
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) January 14, 2021
Wishing peace, prosperity and love for all #EidMubarak pic.twitter.com/zpTMa6g4vs
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) May 24, 2020
May Bappa’s arrival bring you and your dear ones the courage to stay strong and keep smiling. #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao #HappyGaneshChaturthi #GaneshChaturthi2020 pic.twitter.com/4kP1KnrMAy
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) August 22, 2020
Brand Associations
Colgate India was the official smile partner to various IPL teams last year. They had shared the good news with the help of a social media creative. On their part, teams such as Kolkata Knight Riders had shared pictures of happy players — conjuring up imagery that was hard to resist engaging with. Colgate India had shared it in approval.
Thank you for making millions of our fans smile! 😁
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 15, 2020
Welcome onboard @ColgateIndia.#SmileKaroAurShuruHojao #KKRHaiTaiyaar #Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/x4IpV3F12P
Also Read: Prega News Social Media Strategy: Understanding the role influencers & multi-lingual content
On the product innovation end, Colgate India has a tie-up with Barbie wherein they sell toothpaste and toothbrushes that are co-branded. They had leveraged social media to announce the partnership, share discounts and amplify the availability of such products at online stores.
People & Stories
Colgate India often shares stories of people who are not directly associated with the brand. They use their platform and reach to amplify these stories — Stories that matter. They also use their social media presence to talk about the various initiatives by Colgate India that are run for the betterment of the public, especially the youth and students.
In certain cases, these stories are told in partnership with publishers such as Zee and India Today. Recently, they had roped in a sand art creator to help raise awareness about oral care and hygiene — the communication was amplified with social media posts.
An #InternationalYouthDay shout-out to our Business Leadership Program colleagues. They’ve been working with our NGO partners to nurture the next generation of leaders, including recipients of our “Keep India Smiling” scholarships. Well done! #givingback #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao pic.twitter.com/UvWdaIpkJY
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) August 13, 2020
Sujit Chattopadhyay | A retired school teacher, home schooling underprivileged children.
— ZEE5 Shows (@ZEE5Shows) September 5, 2020
He turned his veranda into a school to teach children. His dream to share knowledge shows us that a smile can be in the unlikeliest of places. #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao @ColgateIndia pic.twitter.com/dvXbY2wWXr
IMPACT FEATURE
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) August 29, 2020
Mariyappan Thangavelu, Paralympic Games gold medallist, has been awarded India's highest sporting honour, Khel Ratna. He is also part of our campaign #SmileKaroAurShuruHoJao with Colgate. Hear in his own words how he overcame life’s biggest challenges with a smile! pic.twitter.com/vL9M7BJoZg
A clean mouth, for a healthy you. Thank you @sudarsansand for helping us convey the message of oral care through your gorgeous art. #ColgateVedshakti https://t.co/6CLiPAeRlE
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) January 25, 2021
Digital Innovations
Like most brands, Colgate India too had to innovate to stay relevant in the lives of their consumers through the pandemic. To this extent, they innovated in the e-consulting space and bridged the gap between people who needed oral care and those with the means to help — dentists.
Our @ColgateIndia team has launched an innovative teledentistry service, providing access to free oral care consultations for anyone in India with a mobile phone. Schedule an appointment or connect with dentists via text chat, audio or video. Learn more: https://t.co/jl283I1E59 pic.twitter.com/GHeZLvnz6t
— Colgate-Palmolive (@CP_News) May 28, 2020
On the occasion of World Smile Day in October 2020, Colgate India launched a campaign that included an AR filter for people to try and spread the word. It was a part of their larger campaign — an innovation that helped them reach more people with their narrative around smiles.
Corporate Communications
The brand uses their social media presence, primarily Twitter, to put up messages that are about the company and while they are meant for the general public, they may or may not be relevant to their consumers. These are used to share important notices as well ad build the corporate image of the brand. Here, they also highlight on-ground workshops conducted by the company as an attempt to connect with more people outside the domain of the virtual worlds — in the pre-pandemic world.
Please beware of fraudulent Colgate job offers that ask for money. If you come across any such offers, kindly ignore them. pic.twitter.com/R6nNlSIB9L
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) September 11, 2019
Congrats, #TeamColgate India, winner of the #Sustainability Partner award from @metro_india. Proceeds from our promotion at METRO Cash & Carry stores funded outreach by NGO partners @Water4People_IN, improving access in water-starved communities. #EveryDropCounts #SaveWater pic.twitter.com/s0JQrj1KNR
— Colgate-Palmolive (@CP_News) February 19, 2020
Today, Seva Mandir and @ColgateIndia held an early celebration for International Women's Day in Kegra village with over 200 women from rural and tribal communities. The event also introduced a new project on financial digital literacy. #EachForEqual #IWD2020 pic.twitter.com/KinDCtO8pR
— Seva Mandir (@sevamandir) March 3, 2020
I was at the @colgateindia Vedshakti workshop to learn more about oral health!
— My Black Skirt (@nischita_b) March 5, 2020
I learnt how effective Vedshakti is in fighting germs & enabling whole mouth health. I look forward to a healthy mouth & healthy body, every single day with Colgate Vedshakti! #OralHealthOverallHealth pic.twitter.com/fhNIsxeNrb
At Colgate the health & safety of our employees is of utmost importance. We have implemented health checks & sanitization across touchpoints, established social distancing norms & implemented various measures to create awareness & vigilance amidst our people.
— ColgateIndia (@ColgateIndia) April 14, 2020
Colgate is a legacy brand that is evidently trying to strengthen its social media presence, especially in the wake of being hit by the pandemic. They are putting up posts more regularly and going beyond the usual video/TVC communication they have been doing for years. Trending formats, though slowly and cautiously, are making their way into their brand communication on social media — transforming their digital presence in a significant way.