Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease that is transmitted to people by the virus-infected Aedes mosquito, is a major cause of concern for health authorities in the country. The rising number of Dengue cases during and after monsoons, which is sometimes fatal, has led to a number of awareness drives on the dreaded disease. One such awareness drive has been started by All Out –‘Fight Dengue For Payal’, in a joint initiative by the pest control brand and Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI).
A few days back, I had stumbled upon the campaign through a 30-second ad on YouTube with a link leading to the microsite ‘Fight Dengue for your family’. I wondered who is Payal then. The site offers her story – a 12-year old girl from Jaipur who after seeing her friend suffering from dengue, has committed her time and energy to help spread the message of dengue prevention.
Payal represents one of the many children who are at risk for Dengue. And we can help her and many others, including our family by joining the fight against dengue. The site offers information on dengue symptoms and preventive measures like throwing away any standing water to covering your skin with a mosquito repellent cream, and using the mosquito repellent products from All Out.
Visitors can spread this information by sharing the site with their social networks through the Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons.
Fight Dengue for Payal misses out on social
Sadly, however, All Out does not have a presence on social media itself with which it could leverage the social aspect of the campaign. A Facebook page could have helped the campaign in gaining increased visibility and also help spread the message. At least a Twitter handle could have been created to create buzz.
Moreover, it does not employ a hashtag (say for example #FightDengueForPayal) in the Twitter share button. This would have helped the initiative to find some reach on Twitter, while viewers share it as well as help keep a track on conversations around it. Twitter enables a brand to know the pulse of the audience; this has been missed out.
And without a brand social media presence, the microsite has become almost like a static website to promote All Out products. There’s no engaging content for the viewer, the site does not house the campaign video nor does it even convince you to use the social sharing buttons on the site. A dengue awareness campaign could have leveraged social media in a better way. Perhaps we’ll know more through Payal.