Kimberly-Clark
Break the Cycle
U by Kotex* is a brand new product from an age-old feminine care company. Kimberly-Clark decided it was time to break through the outdated feminine care category and help stop all the weirdness about periods. The target, teenage girls. To grab their attention, we couldn't just talk about absorbency. We had to change the conversation.
Kotex fielded an academic study within this demographic and found that women are frustrated, not with their periods, but with society’s view of vaginal health issues. There are still social and cultural taboos played out in our media channels, schools and homes that are damaging to women’s self-esteem and overall vaginal health. We called out the stigmas and clichés that make it difficult for girls to talk real about periods and get the information they need. We rallied girls to Break the Cycle of period shame by opening an honest conversation.
This is more than a website. This is a social movement.
These efforts ignited an instantaneous dialogue among consumers, bloggers and traditional media who praised Kimberly-Clark for building advocacy with hundreds of women sharing their personal experiences and thanking U by Kotex* for igniting a long overdue conversation about vaginal health. The team singlehandedly replaced a half-century’s worth of marketing miscues, outdated beliefs and campaigns built on euphemism—with new products brought to market through genuine campaigns built on directness and honesty.
The U by Kotex* campaign is the first consumer packaged goods (CPG) campaign to use social media to drive education and advocacy in the feminine care industry. Unlike traditional broadcast and print ads, the flexibility and effectiveness of the digital channel are unrivaled in reaching the teen girl and young women demographics.
We empowered young women to speak their minds, be comfortable with their bodies, and expect more from the brands they keep under the sink.
Moving the Needle
Two weeks after the campaign launch, the website had over 270,000 visits with more than 185,000 sample requests. The sample conversion rate was 69% and there were over 2,300 tweets about U by Kotex alone.
Nearly 3,000 U by Kotex discussions took place in the social space with over 9.1 million impressions through various channels. Over two million girls have been activated on the brand site, including 17,491 declaration signatures and 23,856 likes to the Mission on Facebook.