Mindshare and GSK help to brush up on oral health in India

You wouldn’t ordinarily associate teeth chattering with images of India, known commonly for its sweltering climes rather than chilly weather (although it does have plenty of mountains).

But this is teeth chattering of a different kind, as GSK has teamed up with Mindshare on World Oral Health Day to get Indians talking, literally, about their dental care. Promoting the company’s Sensodyne brand, Mindshare has created a chatbot through Google Assistant, which can be activated by simply saying ‘Hello Sensodyne’.

This then opens up a series of oral care conversations users can have with the chatbot, and even goes to the length of helping consumers get free Sensodyne samples or book dental appointments through a partnership with Lybrate.com. Sensodyne is also offering to pay 700 rupees (US$10) towards each appointment.

The campaign is grounded in insights such as 34% of adult Indians suffering from tooth sensitivity, according to TNS research, and a recent Twitter poll in which 71% of respondents couldn’t remember the last time they visited a dentist. Coupled with this is a smart bet on the mercurial rise of voice technology in India – Accenture figures suggest 150 million Indians will use voice in some capacity this year.

Add to this that more than 90% of smartphones in India operate Android, and the tie-up with Google Assistant makes even more sense.

“While many brands in the industry have been using conversational UI to deliver campaigns, we wanted to link it to a tangible benefit for the consumer,” said Ruchi Mathur, senior vice president, client leadership at Mindshare North & East India.

Ruchi Mathur, Mindshare

As part of an integrated campaign strategy, Sensodyne set up temporary dental kiosks in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru where they conducted free tooth sensitivity tests, with those testing positive being directed to a video interaction with a dentist. The other standard tools, social media, print ads, teaser videos, were also deployed.

Anurita Chopra, area marketing director of oral health at GSK Consumer Healthcare, said: “We are excited to launch this breakthrough, first-of-its-kind tech innovation ‘Hello Sensodyne’ that will address queries of individuals on tooth sensitivity and allow them to take actions towards leading a sensitivity free life.”

Ad Nut’s teeth are generally in decent shape, although most likely honed by the ready diet of nuts as opposed to say, ice cream. While the technology is by no means ground-breaking, Ad Nut is always a big fan of good ideas done well that make the best use of available tech, and this appears to fall firmly in this category.

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