Healthcare | Tuesday 21 April, 2015 3:58 pm |

Lifebuoy, the world’s number 1 selling germ protection soap, launched an impactful shopper activation campaign, in partnership with agency Geometry Global, to highlight the dangers of bacteria found on supermarket shopping carts.

Following global news hype and several university research pieces including a study conducted by the University of Arizona about the dangerous types of bacteria found on grocery shopping cart handles, Lifebuoy and Geometry Global decided to deploy an on-ground activation awareness program in Dubai to address this issue and provide a solution for shoppers.

The activation saw the development of the Lifebuoy ‘Handle on Hygiene’, an innovation attached to shopping cart handles that, when swiped across, activates a sanitizer gel, killing 99.9% of bacteria - making it safe to touch.

Many of the studies included statistics about the types of fecal bacteria that were found on the handles of the shopping carts. According to the research, seven out of every ten handles were covered in fecal bacteria, where E. coli was the most common form identified in 50% of the samples tested.

The Lifebuoy Handles were specifically developed for the activation and sparked the interests of shoppers during their weekly grocery shopping. Targeting families to raise awareness of its sanitizer gel, Lifebuoy was pleased to find that parents were particularly interested to engage with the Handle on Hygiene with 48% of total shoppers using the handle. The activation helped highlight a largely unknown bacterial danger and showcased Lifebuoy as a brand that cares about people’s health and hygiene.

"This is a great example of precision activation. The Handle on Hygiene delivers exactly the right message, to the right people, in the right place, allowing Lifebuoy to engage directly with shoppers in a truly unique way. We're delighted with the results from the trial and are looking forward to bringing the technology to more shoppers throughout the region," explained Ben Knight, Executive Creative Director of Geometry Global, Dubai.

Following the successful campaign, Unilever Gulf is planning on rolling out the Lifebuoy Handle on Hygiene to more grocery stores to widen the impact and raise awareness to a larger audience.

Bora Usal, Marketing Manager at Unilever Gulf stated, “The invention of this handle is part of Lifebuoy’s commitment to bring health and hygiene to a billion people and demonstrating that prevention, is better than cure. We are always looking for innovative ways to connect with our consumers, and we’re very excited to be currently working on the future plans for this technology in order to apply it to other items that are high risk for dangerous bacteria.”