Singing traditional songs during a Ladies Club. Image source: Sight and Life

How might we increase the consumption of eggs by mothers and children in Malawi?

When

2020 - ongoing

Funder

Dioraphte Stitching

Team

Puja Tshering Dr. Rowena Merritt Kalpana Beesabathuni Srujith Lingala Anne Milan

What

A social marketing campaign to change behavior among pregnant and lactating women, mothers, and caregivers of children under 5 to recognize eggs as a source of good protein and include it easily into their and their children’s diets.

Why

Although eggs have proven nutrition benefits, they continue to be scarce and costly in Malawi – the average per capita annual consumption is only 27 eggs, compared to 180 globally. This is due to multiple demand and supply-side challenges leading to high egg cost (8-11x the price of cereals, compared to 1.6x in the US and 3.4x in Europe) and low availability. Cultural beliefs and taboos also undermine egg consumption.

How

By capitalizing on marketing concepts and principles the campaign was piloted in 2020 to encourage uptake of eggs in 8 of the 12 villages where there was a consistent supply of eggs through Sight and Life’s Egghub. Formative research helped refine the campaign objectives, for example, changing the hierarchy of who gets the largest share of eggs in the Malawian households and raising awareness of the benefits of eggs in the eyes of mothers.

My Role

As the Design Specialist, I worked with the local marketing agency, Peloton on

• The overall brand identity of the campaign
• The visual language of all the point-of-sale materials
• Collaborated with the team to establish and refine the creative direction for the campaign, radio spots, training videos, and documenting the pilot

Easy-to-cook recipes incorporating eggs being shared with the women during one of the Ladies’ Clubs. Image Credit: Sight and Life

The Zonse Momo Campaign

Brand Name

The eggs coming out of the Egg Hub are branded as ‘Zonse Momo’ eggs – in Chichewa, Zonse Momo means ‘self-contained or all-encompassing’, setting a positive and empowering tone.

The Big-ticket Idea

The overarching campaign idea “Grab every opportunity to make your kids healthy and happy!” helped develop multiple but orthogonal routes of communicating the same idea. Conducting nimble trials to finalize the winning concept led to the detailed design of the various campaign elements, for all channels.

The Tagline

The campaign tagline is More Eggs, More Smiles as good health is synonymous with happiness.

One of the final poster designs. Image credit: Sight and Life

Branded Growth Meter at the Community-Based Childcare centers (CBCCs). Image credit: Sight and Life

The Channels

Radio: community radio stations with high listenership in the target areas Ladies Club: high subscriber base, gives women more time to connect with the brand Branded Growth Meters: installed at Community Based Childcare Centers which are associated with Ladies’ Clubs, and are where mothers take their child(ren) either for vaccination or treatment Posters: primary point-of-sale (POS) distribution at selling points Standees: featuring a physician figure – POS at select selling points Branded T-shirts: to incentivize sales and drive brand awareness

Point-of-sale posters on the stores where zonse momo eggs are being sold. Image Credit: Sight and Life