The Campaign

There are no relevant restrictions related to the category that Whisper operates in. But having said that, over the years branded content has become a powerful way to get the attention of and engage with consumers whose attention is fragmented across media and screens. As a result, brands across the board are investing in branded content to engage the consumers.

Results

Whisper is a leading sanitary napkin brand in India that believes women can be unstoppable even on their period days. However, it was losing relevance amongst young urban women. Our task was to drive relevance by reasserting a new “contemporary conversation” about periods with young urban women, in a socially-interesting, fame-generating way. Research pointed us to deep rooted period taboos still alive in the 21st century that feed a culture of shame leading to young women growing up with a disgraceful sense of self. Taboos like not entering the kitchen, and even not touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear the pickle would rot at their touch. ‘Touch the Pickle’ was a social movement by Whisper that bravely took on this culture of shame propagated through periods taboos. It started with a TV-ad that asked women to break period taboos. This immediately provoked interest. Interest that fueled a series of branded content pieces from partners. CNN-IBN, a leading news channel, opened up the conversation about period taboos by integrating our message into their award winning show – Citizen Journalists. Menstrupedia, an organization dedicated to educating young girls, tied up with Whisper to launch a comic book series focused on period taboos. Together with the Whisper campaign, these partnership with existing programs fueled a national conversation and debate that got over 2.9 million women to participate and generated over USD 6.1 million in free-media and publicity while significantly growing key brand relevance parameters and sales.

We needed to reach out to young-urban-women and spark a national-conversation about period-taboos. So we started with a TV spot that asked young women to boldly break period-taboos by touching the pickle. This provocative message got the nation’s attention. Bollywood-celebrities and real-life women-achievers stepped forward to draw in the audiences and spread the message. CNN-IBN, a leading news channel, opened up the conversation about period taboos by integrating our message into their award winning show – Citizen Journalists. Menstrupedia, an organization dedicated to educating young girls, tied up with Whisper to launch a comic book series focused on period taboos.

The campaign got the attention of and engaged with young urban women: • The campaign achieved 73% unaided recall. • It generated free-media worth USD 6.1million. • Over 2.9million women participated and pledged to ‘Touch the Pickle’. • Over 1.9million views on YouTube for the ‘Touch the Pickle’ video. • Facebook engagement rate was 959 Index. • Whisper’s Share of Voice grew from 21.0% TO 91.2%.

Whisper is a leading sanitary napkin brand in India that believes women can be unstoppable even on their period days. However, it was losing relevance amongst young urban women. Research pointed us to the force stopping young women – it wasn’t periods, but the culture of shame propagated by period taboos. Whisper decided to challenge this culture with the ‘Touch the Pickle’ movement. It started with a TV-ad that asked women to break period taboos. This immediately provoked interest. Interest that fueled a series of branded content pieces from partners. CNN-IBN, a leading news channel, opened up the conversation about period taboos by integrating our message into their show – Citizen Journalists. Menstrupedia, an organization dedicated to educating young girls, tied up with Whisper to launch a comic book series focused on period taboos. Together with the Whisper campaign, these partnerships with existing programs fuelled a national conversation and debate.