In the last couple of weeks, a particular video has been exploding in my social media space and probably on yours too – The Camp Gyno.
This video was made for Hello Flo, a business that organizes delivery of tampons and pads to girls and women based on their cycle. The Hello Flow business model is actually based on shaving clubs for men.
What peaked my interest, as a marketer, was the communication itself: the message and the tone. Mind you, it’s not without some controversy as MSN Money discusses. The true measure of advertising success is business results which Hello Flo has definitely achieved.
What is it about this video that made it connect with consumers? Great advertising is a combination of the right tone and the right message. It communicates a single-minded message in an engaging way and is clearly branded. Consumers should walk away knowing who the ad is for and what the message is about. While this sounds simple, it’s incredibly hard to do right especially when the product isn’t “cool”.
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Think about those great ads that have gone viral. They are often for items like cars (like this one for Volkswagen featuring Darth Vader) or condoms (like this Durex spot featured in Buzzfeed) or beer (like the infamous Wassup Guys).
For less “fun” categories, it’s much harder to engage with consumers in this type of funny way. Paper towel ads were nothing memorable until Sponge Towels bringing the Sponge Pockets to life. Excellent engagement doesn’t have to be funny but it helps. A complete shift in tone can also stands out
Feminine hygiene is certainly one of those boring categories. Tampons and maxi pads and the reason they were needed was, up until 2010, always hinted at. The tone of the communication was very soft, and gentle: women dancing or doing yoga. The most commonly seen visuals were beaches and the proof of product performance involved “blue liquid.”
In 2010, U by Kotex, owned by Kimberly-Clark, launched with a ground breaking campaign that redefined communication in a dull category. For the first time, young women were talking frankly discussing periods and calling out advertisers for their work to date – from blue liquid to dancing on beaches. Take a look at some of the initial ads here and here. Follow-up advertising challenged behaviour like hiding tampons when going to the bathroom.
Competitors woke up such as P&G’s Tampax and Always brands, reacted to the shift in tone as well. This 2012 Tampax Radiance ad depicts a more realistic woman and funky packaging that’s more competitive with the U by Kotex line.
Tampax also stepped up the tone on the Being A Girl website. Compare it to the U by Kotex site. It is also interesting to note that Hello Flo is currently only distributing Tampax and Always brands, a very clever strategic decision by P&G to directly target first time users.
Clever, engaging communication has completely changed the landscape for the feminine hygiene category over the past three years. It is clearly not a flash in the pan and as a marketer, I’m intrigued by this ongoing evolution.
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