1 km = 1 bar of soap. How Global Handwashing Day into a worldwide virtual run in 164 countries.

Mina GuliClients
Written By Heleen Mills

A mama receiving a bar of soap from Eco Soap Bank

 

Client: Thirst Foundation ·
Year: 2020
Role: Campaign lead · Services: strategy, paid social, email, landing page, sign-up system.
Impact: In its first week, #Sweat4Soap beat its sign-up target by 50%. Thirst made it an annual campaign: 277,378 bars of soap across 132 countries in 2021, and 425,665 km pledged by runners in 146 countries in 2022.

 

Global Handwashing Day, 15 October 2020, fell in the middle of a pandemic. Three billion people around the world still had no proper place to wash their hands. At the same time, "wash your hands" was the most repeated message of the year, and people had stopped hearing it.

Thirst Foundation, the water charity founded by ultramarathon runner Mina Guli, wanted to use the day for two things.

  • The first was to get soap and handwashing stations to the people who needed them.

  • The second was to grow its own community: 1,500 new sign-ups in a single week.


The concept

A free, week-long virtual run where every kilometre you run or walk between 10 and 17 October = one bar of soap for someone who needs it.

Five partners paid for the kilometres.

To take part, you signed up for a race number, you’d have to post your run to any social network with the hashtag #sweat4soap, and at the end of the week, you’d receive a certificate of participation.


My role

I led the campaign for Thirst Foundation from concept to wrap-up. That covered the strategy, the automated sign-up and race number system, the landing page, all social media, paid ads, the email journey from sign-up to thank-you certificate, and daily updates to partners.

I worked remotely from Cape Town with Thirst's team in Australia and a group of freelancers in South Africa.

Campaign Results

 

Campaign Press

 

Campaign Highlights

 

#Sweat4Soap was considered such a success by Thirst Foundation and all the partners, that it was made into annual campaign and Thirst now calls it "our biggest impact-focused campaign of the year".

In two years, a one-week activation grew to more than five times its original distance. The mechanic, the free entry, the personal race number and the thank-you certificate all stayed.

2021 campaign

  • 277,378 km and bars of soap (3.4x the first year)

  • 132 countries and territories,

  • 8.5 million people reached,

  • 67 volunteer Country Captains.

  • It ran on the same bib and sign-up system

 

2022 campaign

  • 425,665 km pledged towards 1 million bars

  • 146 countries and territories,

  • 14.5 million people reached,

  • coverage in Runner's World South Africa

 
 

Campaign Assets

Campaign Key Insights

  • Made the maths simple.
    1 km = 1 bar of soap. Every 100 km, together, = one handwashing station.

  • Impact
    People were highly motivated to participate knowing that doing so was delivering real, meaningful impact (soap & handwashing stations) on the ground.

  • Inclusivity
    Removing all barriers (financial and physical) barriers to entry meant participation came from an incredibly broad socioeconomic and geographic community with very significant numbers from South and Southeast Asia - areas where the soap would be donated to.

    Everyone who signed up got their own race number by email within minutes, built on an automated bib system I created. People shared their bibs on social media, and their friends signed up too

  • Community
    Developing a sense of community is key to encouraging people to share with friends, colleagues and the general public.

    • The campaign opened on Mina’s birthday, 10 October, so we sent her network a personal birthday party invitation. The ask: come run for soap. The response from her contacts was very warm.

    • Adopting the 100km = 1 handwashing station also facilitated development of a “team” approach where individuals recruited support from others to get to their 100 target.

  • Gave everyone something to post.
    Along with the running bib, every participant received a social share pack with campaign graphics, stats and photos they could share on their social media. and daily updates on the kilometres, soap and stations adding up.

  • Storytelling
    Fostering a positive approach to storytelling amongst our community meant people sharing first hand their relationships with water & inspiring others with their runs, their own communities and their own experiences.

  • Kept partners in the loop every day.
    Partners got milestone emails as we passed 10,000 km and 20,000 km, with content they could post straight away.

 

Campaign Links

Heleen Mills
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