South Africa, 19 November 2019 – On World Toilet Day, Domestos South Africa decided to demonstrate their commitment to delivering holistic and sustainable solutions for the country’s school sanitation crisis while raising awareness about this important cause. To achieve this, the team devised a campaign that included the National School’s Hygiene Programme, internal UL corporate employees as well as South African consumers who wanted to make a difference with nano-influencers spreading the message on social media.
On the morning of World Toilet Day, the Domestos Unstoppables, a team of passionate sanitation ambassadors from Unilever’s head office in Durban visited the learners of Hlelolusha Primary School to commemorate World Toilet Day and share important hygiene lessons!
While Hlelolusha Primary School was one of the estimated 2 703* schools still using dangerous and unhygienic pit latrines (although they did have a structure housing the latrines), their facilities were in need of an upgrade, so Domestos and its partners in sanitation Envirosan, Top T and Plumblink, are currently in the process of refurbishing the toilets.
Principal J. J. Mthembu from Hlelolusha Primary School concluded the event by thanking the brand and its partners for their generosity and support, “Thanks to the Unilever Unstoppables for providing a fun-filled day teaching our learners about the importance of good hygiene habits and sanitation skills. We are also very excited about the new toilets that Domestos and partners are giving us, which will make a huge difference to the lives of our learners! Thanks again for restoring many lives with these new toilets!”
Internally at Unilever the support didn’t stop – with staff setting up a Domestos Shop in the Hub area, encouraging employees to either buy a bottle of Domestos and in return the profits from the sale will be donated towards ongoing hygiene and sanitation efforts, or purchase a product and donate the product to a dump bin collection point to support the school’s programme – resulting in a double donation! Overall 158 bottles of Domestos were bought by internal staff and 104 bottles of product were donated to the dump bins, giving staff a tangible way to show their support.
Another reason to commemorate the day was the success and reach of the sanitation education programmes, including Janitor training that focuses on maintenance of school toilets to keep them safe and hygienic. The brand has reached 2 million children with it’s education and outreach efforts, reaching their target a year earlier than planned.
Unilever PR Brand Specialist of Home Care, Mandisa Mbenenge, shared the brand’s biggest act yet, “This World Toilet Day, I’m proud to announce that amongst other initiatives, Domestos pledged 100% of all profits from product sales on the day towards solving the sanitation crisis, to demonstrate the brand’s purpose and full commitment towards providing cleaner, safer toilets for all.”
Finally, the brand recruited x280 nano influencers (local social media influencers with less than 1 500 followers) who resonated with the cause and were advocates of Domestos’s mission. These influencers shared statistics to create awareness and shared a CTA which encouraged consumers to purchase their pack of Domestos on World Toilet Day to do their part.
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The overall results were incredible, with 3 campaign hashtags (#WTD19, #DomestosSA & #UnstoppableTogether) trending before 10am on 19 November. The brand earned 308 million impressions, and a total of R1 035 848.60 was raised towards safer sanitation in SA schools, proving that indeed we are #UnstoppableTogether.
