The Campaign

Insight: An Indian mother is willing to provide her daughter education and nutrition. She believes in grooming her for a brighter future but completely misses the importance of ‘Menstrual Hygiene’. She is ready to spend Rs.60 on a fairness cream but is not even ready to spend half of it (Rs.30) on sanitary pads, which would help her daughter’s education far more than a face cream. We set out to make mothers aware of the stakes involved - the everlasting impact of missing school, due to no access to sanitary protection, on her daughter’s future. Idea: #WingsToFly - India’s first Menstruation Camp. A one-stop solution to all apprehensions surrounding period. An idea to break all barriers, which hold a woman back from using a sanitary pad for herself or for her daughter. We gave her daughter ‘Wings To Fly’.

Creative Execution

Initiative: Covered 16 towns of Maharashtra using print,radio,social media,menstruation camps. A. In Print • Initiative announcement ads, with celebrity face. • Call-to-action ads for participation. • Advertorials for conversations. • Reminder ads, to maximize turnout. B. Radio, social media talked about the initiative. C. At Camp 1) Candid conversations with mothers/daughters. 2) Mothers and daughters participated in physical tasks, we asked them, “Can you do this during periods? While using a cloth?” 3) Video to explain the science behind menstruation. 4) Counselors demonstrated benefits of pad over cloth. 5) Celebrity ambassador, social influencers shared period experiences, success stories. 6) Medical experts talked about menstrual hygiene-how using cloth/unhygienic methods can lead to infections, diseases like cervical cancer. 7) Host urged them to prioritize hygiene over external appearance-pads over makeup. To save Rs.2/day and buy a pack of pads. Post initiative: Tweets/posts from social handles of ambassadors. Extensive print coverage of initiative.

• Category o Sanitary napkin category saw a positive movement after years of stagnation. Category penetration increased remarkably to 110% over last year. o Category sales saw a phenomenal growth of 18% vs year ago. • Whisper o Brand sales went up by an incredible 20% vs year ago. o Market share grew at 107 index month on month. • Engagement o We engaged with 3 million+ women through the initiative o One on one with 10,500 mothers through the camps across Maharashtra. Never had a Fem care brand seen such a huge participation in one state.

Mothers want their daughters to have a brighter future. But they’ve got their priorities wrong, they are willing to spend on a fairness cream but not on sanitary pads. Ill equipped with rags, fear of staining and shaming; makes the daughter’s miss school during periods. We made the mothers realise that biggest barrier to their daughter’s education is, not using sanitary napkins, during periods. We used social media, radio, camps to create unprecedented engagement and education for Whisper. The result: a brighter future for 3m girls and a 20% sales boost for Whisper.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We started with understanding the influencer, not the consumer. Because we had to convince the mother and not the daughter. We conducted focused groups across cities to understand the barriers better, a mother’s mindset, her aspirations for her daughter, issues a mother faces and what will make her adopt pads? This helped us design our campaign and outreach program resting on three key pillars: I. Health experts joined our team to reassure and guide them. Gynecologists explained menstrual cycle and hygiene. Psychiatrists assured them that periods are normal, sign of being healthy. Fostered their confidence. II. We celebrated the drive to succeed via celebrities and influential female achievers like Sonali Kulkarni- biggest movie star of Maharashtra. They encouraged daughters to dream big, by not letting periods obstruct their success. III. Finally, product counselors demonstrated how to use a pad, showcased it’s benefits over cloth.