Himalaya Wellness has launched the second edition of the Himalaya 1derwoman initiative, continuing its partnership with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Women’s team for the fourth consecutive year.

The project aims to bridge the gap between ambition and opportunity by connecting young girls and real-life female role models, particularly in sports and other fields.

This year, through the initiative, 25 young girl cricketers from Mumbai met Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, and Radha Yadav not as fans, but as future athletes being mentored by champions.

As a part of the collaboration, the brand also rolled out a campaign, ‘Remember Her Face’, featuring Mandhana, Ghosh, and Patil.

Conceptualised by 82.5 Communications, the film is going to run throughout the WPL.

We caught up with Ragini Hariharan, marketing director – beauty and personal care, Himalaya Wellness, to know more about the initiative, its association with RCB, and more...

Edited Excerpts:

Tell us about the 1derwoman Project. How does the initiative align with the core values of Himalaya Wellness?

Himalaya Wellness always believed in consistency and nurturing confidence through gentle, effective care. This has been at the core of Himalaya's philosophy. Our consumers start their face care journey typically with a face wash, especially teenagers who start getting pimples when they hit puberty. For our target group, one of the most important things is supporting them with care, being able to build confidence in them that no matter what, they will achieve what they want, and making them comfortable in the skin that they are in. With that purpose in mind, we wanted to start this project.

1derwoman initiative is for building that confidence, but not just through words or a film, but through action - action in terms of mentorship, and enabling them with resources, getting the tips from some of their favourite players directly at their fingertips for them to be able to grow into the role models that today are their role models.

Are there plans to expand this beyond cricket into other fields? How does this project support the broader Himalaya Wellness portfolio?

Our four-year association with the RCB Women’s team made it the perfect platform to launch 1derwoman and start its journey. But the objective of the initiative goes much beyond. Our intent is to get these role models who these girls want to see and aspire to become, more accessible to them. This insight came because our research tells us that eight out of ten girls don't find female role models today. With that, we thought we would start it with cricket, but it’s a model that is scalable. Our intent is to take it across to various different sports, and maybe over the years beyond sports into arts, STEM, and leadership domains. Girls who are young have a lot of anxiety, and they do face a lot of trouble during puberty. We are there to support them so that they keep their focus on what they want to aspire to, and they have the mentorship as well as the resources that Himalaya can sponsor through the 1der woman initiative to help achieve their dreams.

How did you select the specific cricketers  to represent this message?

Our collaboration with RCB enabled us to get across to some of these wonderful women. Since India’s landscape in general could be quite different from the landscape in the rest of the world, we wanted to keep it to Indian women cricketers, who our TG will also more embody with. They would understand that if these girls have made it through hardships and can achieve a place where they are representing RCB and the WPL, with many of them being part of the Indian cricket team that won the World Cup, they can better understand how their own journeys can be shaped through the stories of these amazing cricketers.

From a marketing ROI perspective, how does a sports mentor influencer perform differently compared to a traditional beauty influencer?

Both of them play very different roles for us. We have various kinds of influencers - sports icons who serve as influencers or a credible voice today, beauty influencers, and some are derma influencers. For some of our categories, we also have specialised influencers like mixologists. They are selected based on what is the purpose of the brand and the product at that point in time. Beauty influencers really help drive credibility amongst our consumers on a lot of the face care and beauty care products that we launch. Today, consumers want to know not only what the ingredients are, but they also want to know how it has worked on somebody who's actually used it, and are there are any other concerns that they may have. Therefore, beauty influencers play a huge role in giving consumers real, authentic feedback about our product - letting them know how to use it, making them assured that this is made in the safest and most effective way. On the other hand, sports influencers drive a lot of what the Himalaya ethos is about, which is resilience and building confidence in girls. It's a very meaningful purpose that we are able to build with some of these sports icons. The best part is that the girls we ultimately want to create a soft corner for Himalaya in their minds are the same girls who look up to these female cricketers and icons.

How are you going to evaluate success for this initiative, as the impact goes beyond just the sales?

We have continued to progressively increase our investment in WPL every year. We've seen that it helps us reach out to target audiences, which otherwise is not reachable by every other format. It’s a very passionate audience - young, urban, and female who are aspiring to do something in their lives - that we are able to reach through our communication through WPL. We have seen our consideration drive up. Even sales grew during the time we have collaborated with WPL.

Business metrics aside, success for us would be when girls across India are able to see their role models - whether women leaders, athletes, or changemakers in their communities- and are able to feel inspired to follow a similar path. And Himalaya, through its 1derwoman project, can, in their small way,  help girls with the mentorship and resources - the moment we are able to scale it to such an extent is where I will see it as a success. For 2026, we are starting with an already big target in mind. We are looking at inspiring and impacting 1 lakh plus girls through the 1derwoman Academy. We have built a digital collaboration, a digital communication with the RCB players, where girls who are interested in cricket can enrol in the academy, get tips, motivational messages from these women, and it can inch them closer to their aspirations.

What is the unique ‘Himalaya Hook’ that makes the 1derwoman Project stand out to the Gen Z audience?

The most important thing is authenticity. Himalaya stands for trust and authenticity. I believe when the Gen Z audience sees this kind of an initiative, which is at the grassroots level and looking to make a real impact, it drives a lot of trust that we are not just safe or inspiring, but we are empowering through action I think that's what Gen Z really values and that's where we believe 1derwoman initiative stands out and appeals to the Gen Z audience of today.

How is the 1derwoman Project specifically designed to capture market share in smaller cities where female sports participation is booming but brand penetration is still evolving?

While facewash as a category is penetrated by only about 30-40%, whether you take urban or rural areas. Amongst them, Neem face wash is the most penetrated brand. So, the best way for us, therefore, is to reach out through the Himalaya franchise through our neem franchise. Our school contact program is something that we do both in urban and tier two towns. But more importantly, it's our media plan and the social engagements that help us reach these girls. The fact that a lot of these girls who are interested in cricket typically end up following the handles of RCB and the players, and that is where the communication and this information on 1derwoman will flow through.