In Maharashtra, (Surf Excel’s key market) the Ganesh Chaturthi festival proved to be an ideal occasion to bring about a positive change in environmental protection.

During this festival, a new idol of Lord Ganesh, (the elephant God) is brought home, decorated and worshipped. After 10 days, the idol is bid goodbye and immersed in a water body. This represents the cycle of creation and dissolution of nature. However, as the production of idols on a commercial basis grew, natural clay was replaced by harmful Plaster of Paris which does not dissolve completely in water. This was compounded by the use of synthetic colors that contaminated the water killing the sea life.

We attacked the root cause of this problem and offered a radical yet environmental friendly solution to making these idols. We wanted our consumers to consider purchasing eco-friendly idols and doing their bit to save the waters from pollution.

Workshops were organized across schools in Maharashtra, were kids created the idols from environment-friendly materials like clay and vegetable colors. Well-known artists mentored the kids in the art of clay modelling and ensured that the idols were colored and decorated to perfection.

These idols were then exhibited to the general public and sold. The proceeds donated to “India Foundation”, an NGO devoted to environmental consciousness.

Articles in print spoke about the importance of the festival and the need to be eco-Friendly. The journey of the kids who were a part of the workshop was also captured

17.2 million were reached via mass media to drive awareness of the activity and solicit participation.

Nearly 75,000 Kids participated in the workshop and around 4,000 Eco-friendly idols were exhibited and sold. Parents and Teachers testified to the success of this initiative. They were happy to see a brand taking efforts to educate young minds about the environment and offered solutions on how to preserve it

Notable improvement in key brand health parameters were observed. Unaided Brand Awareness went up by 600 basis points and the key brand health metric, “Believe that children develop best when they're free to get dirty” improved by 200 basis points. Brand talk-ability increased by 200 basis points. (Source: Millward Brown Sept ‘15 Maharashtra Data)