Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The campaign objective was to invite parents into the conversation around their daughters' first period. And we urged and inspired them through content and influencer activity. We didn't want to just stop at making parents and elders aware of the trauma girls within their homes were going through, but also educate them to find find ways to solve these and equip them with the right tools to be able to do so. We partnered with Menstrupedia, a leading resource on menstrual hygiene & health to educate parents and future educators through downloadable learning modules and workshops.

Background

It’s 2021, but 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. They’re often left with to handle the discomfort with a piece of cloth and many unanswered questions. 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 creative idea (30% of vote)

Given the pandemic, girls experiencing their first periods had no access to teachers or friends - their primary source of the information on periods. They would have had to reach out to members within the family in some way to have these conversations – a prospect that already scared them & induced guilt. Amidst the lockdown, while everyone else at home rediscovered the essence of togetherness in these tough times, these girls were dealing with problems they knew nothing about, absolutely alone. For Stayfree to ease the tension, it needed to reach out to families and encourage them to have conversations that can lead to a more comfortable experience for girls. We decided to give families the onus of normalizing girls’ period experience. We gave them a simple message to imbibe and share with girls in their lives - ‘It’s Just a Period’.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

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 (20% of vote)

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

List the results (30% of vote)

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