The Campaign

The creative idea was built on the strategy, outlined in the next section. We had to wake these women from their inertia, show them their routine was flawed and make them realise how unnecessary layers confined and restricted them. We provoked them to SHED THE LAYERS (of worry and protection) that they don on their period nights. Including their panties. To avoid the message, and as a result the product, from being dismissed, we engaged someone like them – popular beauty and fashion influencer Naomi Neo. Her unique personality, a strong match with our brand’s bold and cheeky manner, helped us take on the category norms. For example, we chose not to demonstrate functionality in the category’s blind-spot blue liquid pour. Instead, Naomi drank the blue liquid, gave the audience a knowing wink and subsequently drew attention to the Overnight Panties she was wearing.

Creative Execution

The campaign ran for 4.5 weeks. On a shoestring media and production budget of $60,000, we created, the following content that led to sample requests on our website: 3 videos - 1 teaser, 1 launch and 1 midway refresh. 4 social posts - 2 contest posts, 1 FAQ post and 1 post driving to e-commerce. The videos were published organically on Kotex’s and Naomi’s social channels – Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. They were only boosted for mobile targeting. The social posts were boosted once on the brand’s pages. Naomi’s social pages mirrored the posts, but weren’t boosted. During the course of the campaign we found the audience’s interest in the product had grown, so we created a post to drive traffic to the FAQs page on our website. In the last week, having shot well past our sampling targets, we changed the sampling link to lead to e-commerce instead.

The teaser video generated 126,370 in engagement on Instagram. The launch video generated 213,000 organic views on Naomi’s YouTube and became the 4th highest trending video on YouTube Singapore in April 2017. We had successfully limited the conversation on the product’s look and feel, and generated tremendous positive buzz for it. Social Listening data showed that women were relating to the issues shown, and those from other countries asking for a launch in their markets. Most importantly though, we’d generated 19,165 sample requests – nearly 4x that of our target KPI. The sample request target was reached in <10 days from launch, in <1/3rd of the campaign period. This overwhelming response meant that the sampling post to run in the last week was changed to lead to e-commerce instead. At 214% sales, the campaign delivered double the month’s target, ensuring that we would all get that fabled good night’s rest.

The strategy which guided the creative idea, was rooted in the insight that women in Singapore, especially our core target audience, had an established routine to deal with their period. Specifically the heavy flow nights. They would decrease their comfort, by increasing layers of protection – adding on pads, tissue paper, another panty, sometimes even a towel – building a many-layered defence against a good night’s rest. Without one product to blame, they could never re-evaluate their brand choice and would continue to buy in autopilot mode. Our product – the one solution to replace them all – was superior in functionality, look and feel to that fortress of bulk. That was our springboard. Despite not being their first choice, we provided the better solution to the makeshift multi-layered solution. Trying to launch something because consumers needed it, even though they didn't think it themselves yet would take courage.