Background

Stayfree as a brand has been working towards normalising the conversation towards periods. But even today, girls in India still find themselves thrown into a cycle of shame & silence, when they start menstruating. Periods isn’t a conversation that even the female members of their families have properly with them. It gets more uncomfortable in large Indian families with fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers around. They often seek comfort and answers in their teachers and their school friends. With COVID-19, these challenges magnified. Schools, offices, roads were shut & families were forced to locked up together. During the first 2 months of the lockdown, nearly 2 million girls had their first periods and over the course of the next few months, many more would have them too. Stayfree wanted to help the girls from getting isolated from their own families during their first period.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

India is a land of dichotomy - sanitary napkins are still fighting a cultural battle. For a country well on its way to becoming a digital powerhouse, India is surprisingly backward when it comes to certain issues. Privileged sections of society continue to perpetuate a cycle of shame and victimization, based on a long history of taboos entrenched in culture. More often than not, women seemed to be at the receiving end of these biases. Move over equality, women still find themselves having to fight for being treated with basic dignity – For not being treated as unclean and dirty while menstruating. Conversations around the use of sanitary napkins lag farther behind in this cultural context. Even in 2020, some of the most prominent and overbearing barriers to category adoption are as basic as cultural taboos, discomfort at point of sale, negative perceptions around the product (filled with chemicals, can cause skin irritation, not natural) and the lack of menstrual awareness. Amidst this, Stayfree has always championed progressive conversation around menstruation. It has been on a journey of normalizing periods for over a decade with a focus on driving menstrual health & hygiene.

Describe the creative idea

We wanted to take the conversation of a girl's first period from something that she goes through alone to something that the whole family goes through together. And to relieve her of the fear and discomfort by reassuring her that - "it's just a period." We invited the family into the conversation through digital content and influencers. And then helped them get comfortable about having the conversation through tutorials, stories from other parents and other interventions.

Describe the strategy

Stayfree needed to find allies for girls’ in their first period experience. Girls experiencing periods for the first time in their lives didn’t know what to expect. Even when they turned to their mothers for information, a lot of them were shushed since a lot of them were ill equipped to talk about the ‘how’s and ‘why’s of periods. We asked ourselves ‘Why is it that committed parents became distant & indifferent only when it came to menstruation?’ That’s when we realized that culture had taught families that menstruation was a ‘women’s problem’ and only women needed to ‘deal’ with it. We had to flip the narrative. With a message that a girl's period was not hers alone, but everyone else's as well. And with online content consumption sky-rocketing during Covid-19, it was the perfect time to target every family member with our message - it's just a period.

Describe the execution

We created a digital film to deliver the message #ItsJustAPeriod. We launched the film early into lockdown and brought the conversation back through the year. Occasions like World Menstrual Hygiene Day and International Daughter's Day also allowed us to add more emotion and relevance to our conversation. We shared stories of influential parents who believed in the message ‘It’s Just a Period’ and got them to encourage their followers & fans to do the same. We didn’t want to simply offer encouragement, but also equip parents with the right knowledge and tools to help their daughters. We partnered with Menstrupedia, a leading resource on menstrual hygiene & health to educate

Describe the results / impact

We reached a wide set of diverse audiences and triggered them into action.This makes us believe we gave a good start to the journey of normalizing period conversation and made period experience less traumatic for millions of girls for the next few years. 1. Our video message reached a total of 15.33 million audiences across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram 2. Influencers helped us reach a diverse audience set & gave us sustained engagement of 1.01 Million across the campaign period 3. For us to realistically change period experiences across homes, we needed to take the conversation to men and elders of the family. Within the 10.17 million views on the first video, 1.03 million were male users in the age group of 25-45 and parents. Their view-through-rate was as high as 41.49% 4. 450 parents and 50 NGO field workers registered on Menstrupedia and were trained to become future educators