The Making of Viral Pygmy Hippo Moo Deng’s First Branded Collaboration with Lifebuoy
For its latest ‘H for Handwashing’ campaign, Unilever’s Lifebuoy enlisted the help of internet sensation Moo Deng. Developed with creative agencies MullenLowe Singapore and MullenLowe Lintas India, ‘Confessions of Moo Deng’ sees the baby pygmy hippopotamus join the cause for turning the letter ‘H for Hippo’ in the alphabet to ‘H for Handwashing’.
To further her mission, Moo Deng requests that children scan a QR code where they will be introduced to an AI-augmented hippo teacher who provides interactive and engaging education through hyper-customised games, activities and songs.
To find out how this collaboration came together, LBB’s Sunna Coleman speaks with MullenLowe Singapore global business director, Vinay Vinayak, and MullenLowe Lintas India president, Sarvesh Raikar, who take us behind the scenes and share their vision for transforming dry hygiene messages into entertaining ideas steeped in popular culture.
LBB> What was the brief from the client and what initial ideas did you have?
Vinay and Sarvesh> The brief from the client was for Global Handwashing Day (GHD) 2024, where the objective was to extend the ‘H for Handwashing’ initiative that was first introduced with GHD 2020. Lifebuoy’s mission has been to futureproof the world against outbreaks of infectious diseases by promoting the preventive habit of handwashing with soap, in an affordable, effective, easy-to-implement and scalable way.
The ‘H for Handwashing’ campaign set out to fundamentally change global handwashing habits by integrating hand hygiene lessons into school curricula across the world. Every year since its inception, the campaign has tapped into a range of behaviour change spaces in early childhood education — from learning through play and digital games, to peer-to-peer education.
This year, we wanted to explore AI as a means of driving further impact and bring the campaign to life to improve hygiene behaviour among children through personalisation. Along with this, we were keen to anchor this year’s intervention on animals, which has been proven an effective way to foster learning, curiosity and empathy. Animals capture children’s attention and imagination which makes them excellent teaching tools in early childhood education.
LBB> How did you land on the final idea to collaborate with internet sensation Moo Deng?
Vinay and Sarvesh> The ‘H for Handwashing’ campaign urges parents, teachers, ministers, governments and education bodies to fundamentally change the way the alphabet is taught. ‘H’ should not stand for house or hippo or hen, but handwashing. The big platform in 2024 was the Lifebuoy AI-teacher hippo that would help teach handwashing to children everywhere. As the world’s most popular hippo taking the internet by storm, Moo Deng was a strategic and natural fit to make the initiative popular. Moo Deng is a hippo unlike no other and getting her to deliver our core message will help to get the world to sit up and take notice.
The idea was to create a content video that was primarily engaging and charming, while delivering the message of handwashing. With Moo Deng’s inherent popularity, we could reach millions of people and promote the message, in a seamless and engaging manner across audiences — children, parents, and all other fans. It also allowed us to entrench Lifebuoy and handwashing — a subject that has traditionally been low on engagement — in popular culture.
LBB> Tell us more about the creation of the AI-powered hippo teacher and how it was built to engage kids?
Vinay and Sarvesh> Educational tools have to change as per the generation. AI has emerged as a powerful tool to facilitate behaviour change, particularly in its ability to personalise experiences, especially when combined with AR. Personalisation is key to influencing long-term behaviour change in health, by not only boosting cognitive understanding, but helping people learn and build habits through emotion and motivation.
The AI-teacher hippo teaches handwashing techniques in a super engaging way by tailoring content to each child’s preferences, such as their favourite colour, food and even learning style. Once preferences are captured, the AI-teacher hippo allows children to choose from three key activities — songs, games or colouring sheets, each designed to reinforce hand hygiene practices through engaging and interactive methods. This level of customisation ensures that the educational content is not only engaging but also effective in driving long-term behaviour change.
The tool has already educated many children worldwide, increasing awareness of critical handwashing occasions by eight times and improving technique by 28%. These achievements highlight the power of innovative, personalised approaches in making hygiene education effective, engaging and scalable.
LBB> Why is it so important for this hygiene message to reach as many kids as possible, not just in India but worldwide?
Vinay and Sarvesh> Lifebuoy has a global footprint with a strong presence across continents and in countries that include India, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Africa, to name a few. However, the message of handwashing is highly relevant to children all over the world and hence the global nature of the idea and the need for appeal across boundaries.
Brands today play a crucial role in addressing the world’s challenges by leveraging their resources, influence and innovative capabilities to drive large-scale impact. Lifebuoy has always led the way on hygiene education, pushing the boundaries through the design and development of educational materials for children, parents and communities at large.
Since 2010, Lifebuoy hand hygiene initiatives and campaigns have reached more than one billion people on the importance of handwashing to prevent illness.
LBB> What were some of the creative or strategic challenges on this project and what solutions did you come up with?
Vinay and Sarvesh> Education served as instructions is not what kids want to embrace. The messages that stick with us are not the ones that need scolding or nagging, but instead the ones that are interesting and engaging. There is a need today to make hygiene and hygiene messaging delightful, engaging and accessible to all. That’s why we engaged Moo Deng, who allowed us to tell our story in a way that held its ground in the face of an exciting world of content.
We also worked hard to ensure the AI-teacher hippo was universal in its appeal: it’s available in five different languages, including English, Hindi, Amharic, Bahasa Indonesian and Vietnamese, spoken by roughly 30% of the world’s population, ensuring that children from diverse backgrounds can fully engage with and benefit from the tool. The use of emojis and visual cues is another inclusive feature, particularly effective in engaging young learners who may face challenges in literacy.
Throughout its development, ethical considerations have been central. This tool has been designed with stringent data privacy measures to protect children’s personal information, supported by Unilever’s AI Foundation and adhering to Microsoft’s responsible AI practices.
LBB> What’s something eye opening or interesting that you learned during work on this?
Vinay and Sarvesh> Hygiene messages have become a blind spot in the post pandemic world — people just switch off when faced with them. There is not much new to say, hence it is imperative that we find newer ways to land the message.
Lifebuoy’s recent initiatives that have been created by MullenLowe have been conceptualised with one single but important objective: transform dry, boring hygiene messages into ideas that entertain, engage and are steeped in popular culture:
LBB> What are you most proud of on this project?
Vinay and Sarvesh> The association with Moo Deng has been a hit and has helped us in our objective of making hygiene education delightful.
In addition, when we launched ‘H for Handwashing’ in the throes of the pandemic in 2020, the aim was to help change the handwashing habits of the world, forever. While it is gratifying to the team that we are in the fourth year of a movement that has been deployed in over 35 countries, has secured the support of NGOs, governments, schools and celebrities, there is still much work to be done.
LBB> What feedback and results have you received for the campaign so far?
Vinay and Sarvesh> While the results and impact metrics continue to come in, AI-teacher hippo was tested with around 200 children from grades six to ten at Montfort School, Delhi (India) in collaboration with The Bharat Scouts and Guides facilitators, to directionally assess its effectiveness in enhancing handwashing awareness, motivation and behaviours with support from teachers. The results, comparing pre-session and post-session data, revealed substantial improvements across all three parameters — awareness, engagement and behaviour change.
LBB> Anything else you’d like to share?
Vinay and Sarvesh> Large scale behaviour change takes time, effort and persistence. There is no silver bullet, but instead the perseverance of a small group of people who are obsessed with making hygiene enjoyable and delightful.
