It Only Takes One Person: A Campaign Devoted to Positivity

 

Can you give me something to smile about?

Well, Colgate can. Colgate started their Colgate Optimism project campaign in October of 2020 to promote optimism and overall positivity for one another. The social media platforms that have been used for this campaign are Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The purpose of this campaign is to spread optimism and make an impact with just a smile. The target audience of this campaign was looking directly at Gen Z(those under the age of 24), from a study conducted by Colgate – noticing that this age group seems to be more pessimistic than other age groups.  According to this study by Colgate, “three quarters of Gen Z Americans forfeited major life opportunities (education, career, collaboration) and more than 80 percent report[ed] having zero opportunities to work together to make an impact in their communities, despite three quarters believing it's important to do so.” 

This is one person, Aminata Touray, a Georgetown University freshman who has made a positive influence on others and through an advertisement by Colgate was able to share her own optimism for others that might be going through a similar situation (in this young woman's case applying to colleges). 

In an uncertain time with COVID-19, still, Colgate wanted to help Americans stay positive and were able to team up with  "people who are working on projects to improve the world and provide valuable mentorship and coaching from experts in optimism, business, entrepreneurship and the possibility to secure grant funding to help actualize and further their ideas.”   To provide more inspiration on living a more positive and impactful life – with more focus on mental and physical health. In terms of the overall target audience, the main goal it seems is to spread more optimism, which is pretty cool seeing a dental care company focus on this during a hard time with the pandemic. To add more perspective on this campaign, Dana Medema, General Manager of Oral Care in North America said that "Optimism drives progress. A smile can trigger a complete change in outlook. Importantly, a healthy smile is also important to your overall health, protecting us from systemic diseases and other problems. In many ways, it is 'a smile a day that will keep the doctor away.” I thought that quote was very powerful and needed during this struggling year; a smile really goes a long way.

How did they create this masterpiece?

  • What was the goal? The goal of the Colgate Optimism Project was to draw more awareness and overall positivity towards people that are creating change in their communities – adding more smiles behind the negative feelings, as well as empowering everyone to conquer oral health.
  • What was the strategy? –  The strategy of the Colgate Optimism Project was to elicit more emphasis on becoming more optimistic minded rather than pessimistic natured, drawing more of the Gen Z crowd through social media, and proving that a smile really can go a long way. Colgate also wanted people to start becoming more aware of their oral health.
  • What were some of its tactics?
      • Created a series of informational and heartfelt videos to publish on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram about the effects of smiling: This allowed for people to see how much a smile can radiate more optimism and positive energy with the fun and informational videos. Videos that created more conversation in the comments of how it inspired them.

      • The  #ColgateSmile threads on Twitter and Instagram for everyone to share their own story and, of course, their beautiful smiles: These threads were a huge component to the overall mission of this campaign, to celebrate and bring the positivity in everyone, so that no one is alone. It was especially crucial to see this element with people still adding in the hashtag to bring smiles and spark more conversation on mental health and oral health.

Why the Colgate Optimism Project campaign was a #SocialWin: 

  •  The Colgate Optimism Project was successful when it first was created in October of this year, and is still on-going to create more of a positive conversation on highlighting mental health awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic with getting prominent figures like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and professional psychologist Deepika Chopra, -- looking at the positive effects of smiling, as well as putting more of focus of how to take care of oral health and our own mindfulness. This campaign appealed to its target audience initially looking at Gen Z, but they did not exclude anyone from taking part in this incredible project – supporting each other on the goal for brighter tomorrow’s. It was simple to be involved with the project by easily just tweeting a picture with the hashtag(#ColgateSmile) on Twitter, or posting a picture on Instagram either on the individual person's story or their actual Instagram profile page by tagging @Colgate and using the hashtag #ColgateSmile.

  • This campaign was especially unique because it involved many different elements to ensure that people were able to add their own take – during a time that everyone felt alone, this was beautiful to see a company highlight the good in a time of the not-so-good. With more stabilizing and promoting mental health, which often gets stuck on the back burner and putting more emphasis overall on smiling. Smiling seems so miniscule but it can really make all the difference in someone’s day and this social media campaign did a solid job of reaching people to share and spread positivity with more interest in helping build more education on oral health – which can often go unnoticed if not taken care of, just like our mental health.

Colgate Optimism Project & the key takeaways to build a successful campaign 

  • Partnerships: Colgate was able to partner with many important companies such as Headspace and Terra Cycle to promote more mindfulness and good in the world. Headspace is an app that helps promote mental health awareness with their “Mindful Moments” just created for the hum toothbrush by Colgate for guided mediation and overall mindfulness. TerraCycle is a recycling company that helped to launch an oral care recycling program. This has helped to overall bring light to recycling to used toothbrushes instead of throwing away into landfills, which is good for the planet. These both shed more good into the world and more on the idea of promoting positivity into the world.  
  • Engagement: Colgate made it super simple to be involved with this project by either using the #ColgateSmile hashtag or interacting with the posts on their Twitter, Instagram or Facebook accounts. People enjoy talking about themselves (no, I’m serious) and being involved in a conversation and with the goal surrounding positivity, the question of comforting the vulnerable is huge. It shows just how big of an impact smiling is and being there for someone you don’t personally know but that interacting is critical and Colgate helped to instill this mindset more. 



  • Consistency: The really cool thing I noticed about this entire project was how Colgate remained consistent in producing content, whether it was videos, tweets, or a hashtag to let people know that they care in a time, where it seems like no one cares. The first thing I remember back at the beginning of November were the less than 10 second clips on their Facebook account that were inspiring and motivating clips – all on the goal of spreading positivity and making sure everyone is included in the conversation. The recent tweet below was posted on December 10 - includes a video clip, as I previously mentioned, is the most inspiring trend that I have seen from Colgate. Short clips that get your attention and in this case spread postivity for everyone. 

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