Brands are increasingly choosing the influencer marketing route not only to promote their products but also to change mindsets and break stereotypes in society.
Joining the influencer bandwagon, Sesame Workshop India recently launched a campaign, #DaddyCool, to inspire fathers to be more involved in their children’s upbringing and not make child-rearing a ‘mother’s-only’ domain.
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Sonali Khan
Shedding more light on the idea behind the campaign, Sonali Khan, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop India, said, “Caregiving has primarily been associated with women in any society; however, today we have a greater number of men out there who are far more involved and engaged with their kids than our society would perceive. These fathers certainly deserve a shoutout, but we need many more fathers like these, so we decided to celebrate such fathers who can inspire other daddies to be more engaged in their children’s lives and be #DaddyCool.”
“There’s enough evidence that suggests how the involvement of fathers in their children’s lives improves their early learning and enhances their overall development. So, through this campaign, we wanted to help fathers realise their unique potential of being the nurturer and reinforce their positive engagement in their children’s lives. And besides, with the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, caregivers, especially moms, are far more stretched than they would have been at any other point in time. Hence, it is important for fathers too to participate in their children’s lives, have more nurturing interactions and reassure them that it’s all going to be alright. Having said that, Sesame Workshop India is open to collaborating with brands to break barriers in communication, thus enabling societal behaviour change,” she added.
Sesame Workshop India is the Indian arm of Sesame Workshop, the non-profit media and educational organisation behind Sesame Street. They provide kids access to early education, critical health lessons, and helpful tools for tough situations via a combination of television, radio, digital media, mobile technologies, and community outreach.
To change this perception in society, Sesame Workshop India adopted the influencer marketing route. “The best way to reach out to fathers today is social media as they spend a large amount of time there. According to a baseline study conducted by Sesame Workshop India last year in Lucknow, 94% of fathers have an active FB account. 58% fathers visit their FB page many times in a day, 19% visit once a day. Overall, 76% fathers visit their FB page at least once a day,” Khan said.
According to the data provided by content marketing agency Sheeko, the influencer-driven campaign has reached over 2.5 lakh people in a media value pegged around Rs 10-11 lakh.
To make any influencer marketing campaign effective, the right choice of influencers is imperative. Sesame Workshop India has aced it by roping in television actors Karanvir Bohra and Sourabh Raaj Jain. They are young fathers, making them the right choice to talk to the parents of today’s times. They are also known to create a lot of content featuring their children. In fact, they share posts where they are engaging in various activities with their children. So the audience knows them to be hands-on fathers who spend quality time with their children and are involved in their upbringing. This helps make the campaign more authentic and relatable.
For example, Bohra, who has three daughters, regularly shares posts where he’s playing with them, feeding them, or putting them to sleep. This helps the campaign as the audience knows that Bohra is completely involved in his children’s routine.
Jain, who has a son and a daughter, also regularly shares pictures of fun activities with his children such as dancing and flying kites.
Khan said they wanted to align with fathers who are setting new age daddy cool goals for fellow fathers. “As a brand with its cent per cent focus on the developmental needs of children, we wanted to align with fathers who are enjoying fatherhood with their children without any apprehension. And nowadays, we are seeing many fathers stepping up or at least those who want to step up to be more involved in their kids’ lives but they don’t know if an emotional or caregiving side of the father is welcome in society. This was the reason why we wanted to rope in not just fathers from the telly world but across different walks of life so that they can grow a bigger tribe of men who are not just creating a happy and empowering childhood for their child but also contributing towards a smarter, stronger and kinder world,” she said.
The brand has also asked its followers to share their #DaddyCool moments and they have featured these on their Instagram handle. Through the user-generated content, the campaign becomes more relatable and also receives a wider reach.
“When people start sharing your campaign posts or join in a movement like Daddy Cool, that’s when you know that the campaign is no longer exclusively owned by the organisation but has now become people-owned. For every share or participation by a user, it creates sincere interest in other people to know more about the campaign because it is not being boosted by advertisers but shared by real people who find some real value in associating themselves with it. User-generated content allows fathers from different walks of life to share their story with the world, making it relatable and sometimes even inspirational for other fathers to find out more about our campaign and engage with our content that offers simple yet unique solutions for overall developmental needs of children while also motivating them to adopt a more positive parenting approach,” Khan said.
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