Colgate WhatTheBlackTimes

Curiosity has seldom killed the cat, but has always ensured knowledge to the seeker. It is this curiosity that has engaged audiences across mediums and also forms the favourite bait of storytellers and marketers. For the launch of its new SlimSoft Charcoal toothbrush with black bristles, Colgate India engaged with online influencers and bloggers to build the curiosity using #WhatTheBlack.

The innovative campaign conceptualized by Red Fuse Communications and executed by Candid Marketing involved direct mailing and a blogging contest on Blogadda, a community of Indian bloggers. The toothbrush comes with micro slim-tip bristles infused with charcoal that help reach deeper and remove plaque bacteria. Pitching this wouldn’t sound exciting, so a story was created around black.

A 3-day campaign led by curiosity involved revealing the new toothbrush in an innovative way by associating it with all things black. The receivers then drove the curiosity with their social connections.

As per Campaign India, ‘key opinion leaders’ received a black item every day. On day one, it was a black paper mug and a chocolate within a ‘black egg’. The only indication of the source was the product website. On day two, they received a 12-page ‘WhatTheBlack Times’ in which the first and last page featured fictional stories, while the rest promoted the website. On day three, they finally received the charcoal toothbrush, after striving hard to decipher the clues received earlier.

Parallely, Blogadda conducted a blogging contest of the same name ‘#WhatTheBlack’ without revealing the brand behind it. Registered Blogadda members were invited to write down their wishlist of 5 black things. While ten bloggers could win iPads, every valid blogpost would win a gift voucher worth Rs. 500 from Flipkart. Additionally, they could also participate in the 3-day promotional activity by signing up to express their interest.

Shortlisted bloggers and key influencers then drove the online mystery behind #WhatTheBlack by tweeting pictures of the black items they received every day – a black paper cup with black tissue paper, a black egg with chocolate inside, a black newspaper (like in reverse copy) with stories of white stuff transforming into black. Some concluded that it would be for the launch a dark chocolate, while some thought it was a new Blackberry launch until the final reveal of the black toothbrush!

https://twitter.com/RahulRishab/statuses/495265699317567489

Innovative online launch

Now who would have dreamed of a black toothbrush from Colgate?! Black could be an electronic device, or a new deo or for that matter some new dark chocolate brand, but could never be possibly related to a toothbrush. Associating the new product with black and triggering conversations with the help of clues, has helped create the required social buzz.

The #WhatTheBlack launch has to be a memorable one for all involved both in offline and the online world who helped create buzz with their blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. Associating with bloggers and influencers has only helped boost the reach and amplify the curiosity further.

Colgate India’s #WhatTheBlack is a cool campaign backed by an excellent suspense-laid storytelling, what do you say?