Case Study: How P.D. Hinduja Hospital used Mumbai’s traffic chaos to drive heart health awareness

Amid growing cases of heart disease in urban India, P.D. Hinduja Hospital launched the 'Unmute Your Heart' campaign to promote preventive heart health. Centred around the metaphor of Mumbai’s traffic congestion, the campaign used radio, social media, OOH, and influencer content to encourage early check-ups and awareness, driving engagement across platforms.

Category Introduction

The Indian healthcare industry is projected to reach USD 638 billion in 2025, up from USD 372 billion in 2023, driven by rising chronic diseases, digital health adoption, and increased private investments.

The hospital segment, which accounts for 80% of healthcare spending, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8%, reaching USD 194 billion by 2032.

India faces a shortage of 3 million hospital beds and 1.54 million doctors by 2025, highlighting the urgent need for infrastructure and workforce expansion.

The cardiovascular devices market in India is valued at USD 1.55 billion in 2025, projected to grow at 8.64% CAGR to USD 2.34 billion by 2030, driven by rising heart disease prevalence and tech innovations. 

Brand Introduction 

The Hospital & Medical Research Centre, established in 1951 in Mumbai, has always stuck to its philosophy of providing ethical value-based care, with a human touch, which has helped it garner and sustain the deep trust of its patients and communities it serves. Being a not-for-profit institution, the hospital provides free or concessional treatment to the poor and needy at the hospital and runs a free rural health program.

On social media, the hospital’s marketing objective is to educate and engage the public on preventive healthcare, especially around lifestyle diseases like heart conditions. Campaigns like Unmute Your Heart aim to spark conversations beyond hospital walls, using storytelling and digital innovation to build trust and position the hospital as a leader in holistic, patient-first care.

Summary

The Unmute Your Heart campaign by the hospital aimed to raise awareness about preventive heart care around World Heart Day. Using Mumbai’s traffic congestion as a metaphor for heart congestion, the multi-channel campaign urged citizens to book free check-ups via unmuteyourheart.in. It reached over 2.1 million people, sparking conversations on early detection and heart health.

Call to action

Citizens were urged to visit www.unmuteyourheart.in to book a free heart health check-up, making preventive care accessible and actionable.

Media strategy

• Radio: 30-second spots and RJ mentions during peak hours linked traffic stress to heart health, supported by interviews and on-ground activations.
• Social media: Vox pops, reels, and campaign videos contrasted external chaos with internal health risks, driving traffic to the microsite.
• OOH (Out-of-Home): Hoardings and bus shelters in high-traffic areas like Dadar, Worli, Khar, Bandra and Mahim featured impactful visuals of roads mapped onto human hearts.
• Look walkers: Human billboards wore T-shirts with QR codes and provocative questions to engage pedestrians directly.
• Tone & impact: The campaign used relatable urban metaphors, emotional storytelling, and multi-channel amplification to spark conversations and inspire real-world health action.

Problem statement/Objective

The brand aimed to address the growing public neglect of early signs of heart disease, especially in a fast-paced urban environment like Mumbai. Despite rising cardiovascular risks due to stress, poor sleep, and sedentary lifestyles, people often ignore symptoms until it’s too late.

• To raise awareness about heart health and encourage early detection through free heart check-ups, especially around World Heart Day (29th September).
• Encourage proactive heart care by urging citizens to listen to their bodies and book a free heart health check-up.
• Spark conversations around heart health using relatable metaphors like Mumbai’s traffic congestion to highlight internal health congestion.
• Drive traffic to the campaign microsite www.unmuteyourheart.in for check-up registrations.
• Educate the public on the importance of early detection and preventive care through engaging, multi-channel storytelling.

The campaign sought to shift heart health from a reactive to a proactive conversation, making it urgent, relatable, and actionable.

Brief

The brand aimed to launch the second edition of its Unmute Your Heart campaign around World Heart Day (29th September) to raise awareness about cardiovascular health. The brief to the agency was to conceptualise a creative, relatable, and action-driven campaign that would:

• Encourage citizens to take proactive steps toward heart health 
• Use a local insight that would engage with the Mumbaikars
• Educate the public on how lifestyle factors like stress, poor sleep, and inactivity contribute to heart disease.
• Drive traffic to the campaign microsite www.unmuteyourheart.in for check-up registrations.
• Execute a multi-channel strategy including radio, social media, OOH, and influencer content to ensure maximum reach and engagement.
• Create emotional resonance and public conversation around preventive heart care using storytelling, real-world activations, and digital innovation.

Creative idea

The campaign’s core creative idea was to draw a relatable parallel between Mumbai’s traffic congestion and heart congestion. It used this metaphor to highlight how people often ignore signs of cardiovascular stress, just like they tolerate daily traffic. The campaign creatively visualised this through city roads mapped onto a human heart, and messaging like: “The congestion in your heart could be worse than the one you're stuck in.”

This insight was brought to life across media formats - radio, social, OOH, and influencer content, making the message both emotionally resonant and visually impactful.

Challenges

• Public Apathy Toward Preventive Health: Many people ignore early signs of heart issues, especially in a fast-paced city like Mumbai. 
• Cutting Through Urban Noise: With constant advertising and information overload, it was crucial to create a campaign that stood out and felt personal. 
• Driving Real Action: Beyond awareness, the campaign needed to convert attention into action, getting people to book a free heart check-up.

Execution 

Social media:

The campaign was rolled out across multiple platforms to maximise reach and engagement:

• Instagram & Facebook: Used for reels, campaign launch videos, and influencer-led content. A fast-paced reel creatively contrasted Mumbai’s traffic congestion with heart congestion, directing users to the microsite.
• LinkedIn: Targeted healthcare professionals, corporate employees, and decision-makers with thought leadership posts, campaign highlights, and preventive health messaging. It helped position P. D. Hinduja Hospital as a forward-thinking, socially responsible healthcare brand.
• YouTube: Hosted influencer vlogs and skits that blended humour with awareness, encouraging viewers to book a free heart check-up.
• Twitter (X): Used for campaign updates, influencer retweets, and engagement with trending health and wellness conversations.

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Digital:

• Microsite: All campaign efforts directed users to http://www.unmuteyourheart.in, where they could book a free heart health check-up.
• QR Code Integration: Featured on T-shirts and look walkers, enabling instant mobile access to the microsite.
• Cross-Platform Integration: All media - radio, OOH, was aligned to funnel users toward the digital platform.
• SEO & Paid Ads: Search Engine Optimisation and paid ad placements (Google Ads, Meta Ads) were used to boost visibility and drive traffic to the microsite.

PR:

To amplify the campaign, the team focused on creating visibility and media engagement around the on-ground activation:

• Media engagement: Invited journalists and photographers to cover the campaign live at one of the high-traffic signal activations, ensuring first-hand visual storytelling.
• Press release dissemination: Circulated a comprehensive press release highlighting the campaign’s objective, creative insight and free heart check-ups.
• Media coverage: Secured coverage across online and trade publications, reaching a total audience of 30,97,019.

Results 

Quantitative: 

• Total reach across platforms: 2,196,789
• Microsite visits: 1500+
• Engagement rate on social media: 43.25%
• Total impressions: 14K+
• Total views: 68,69,388

Qualitative:

• The campaign sparked public conversations around preventive heart care by using a relatable metaphor- Mumbai’s traffic congestion to highlight internal health risks.
• It created emotional resonance through storytelling, especially via influencer vlogs and skits that humanised the message.
• The use of multi-channel integration ensured the message reached diverse audiences from commuters and pedestrians to digital natives and professionals.
• The campaign helped position the hospital as a thought leader in preventive healthcare, reinforcing its commitment to community well-being.

Rajiv Himmat, Director Marketing, said, “P.D. Hinduja Hospital has always laid emphasis on preventive healthcare. Heart Health diseases often develop silently with symptoms that are often ignored by people. Our aim was to have a campaign that would create awareness, empower individuals with the necessary knowledge to take preventive steps and to do regular checkups. The “unmute your heart” campaign effectively communicated this message using a very relatable metaphor of traffic congestion and triggered people to register for check-ups.”