Spikes Asia Case Study: How the Stayfree Daughter's Day campaign reached 19.7 mn users

The special edition of Spikes Asia Case Study attempts to understand how the campaigns that won big at the awards, were actually executed. The Stayfree Daughter's Day campaign reached 19.7 mn users & won a Silver at Spikes Asia 2022. Here's how...

The case study on Stayfree Daughter's Day campaign explores how the campaign that won a Silver at Spikes Asia, harps on the relevance of the 'first conversations' of fathers with daughters around menstruation. To achieve this, the brand released a long-format video that received an engagement rate of 51% from men.

Category Introduction

Multiple reports from leading organizations like UNICEF and Swacch India show that less than 10% of Indian women are aware of even the basics of their menstrual cycle & menstrual hygiene. Adding fuel to this fire is the social hypocrisy - that on one hand, India celebrates women who are leading powerful, provocative journeys of progress across categories. On the other hand, some of the most privileged sections of society continue to perpetuate a cycle of shame and victimization, on the back of biological processes like menstruation.

Brand Introduction

Stayfree, a sanitary napkin brand from Johnson & Johnson, frames its objective around encouraging more and more people to learn about menstruation and to talk about it. With the goal of making young girls feel comfortable about their periods, the brand is on a path of normalizing periods in India – for young girls and for everyone shaping their lives. 

Stayfree Daughter's Day campaign - Summary

Around 71% of girls enter menarche knowing nothing about periods. And when they do learn about periods, they also learn a lesson in hiding them. The lack of conversation around periods makes young girls believe that periods are something to hide – especially from men. This starts them on an unhealthy relationship with their periods, impacting their emotional and physical well-being in the long run.

Stayfree has been on a journey of normalizing periods for over a decade with a focus on driving menstrual health & hygiene. But it soon realized that the pervasive silence around periods needed more than a category push, it needed a cultural catalyst. Shame and silence started from the very first conversation. And so, it was the first conversation that needed to be done differently while challenging the status quo.

To do this, Stayfree released an awareness campaign on the occasion of daughter’s day 2021 to activate the brand purpose of normalizing periods in the truest sense, by taking on the cultural barrier that delays the first-period conversation and restricts the people who lead them.

Objective

The objective of the Stayfree awareness campaign was to bridge this sizeable gap between inhibition and action. If the brand could get the men to start talking, their love for their daughters could potentially overcome and end years of social conditioning. This was the single-minded thought behind the brief – to simply start this monumental conversation.

Creative Idea

Challenging the notion that menstruation is a ‘woman’s problem’ and meant to be hidden from men, the idea centred around father-daughter duos having their first-ever conversation about periods. Since taking the first step to do anything new is always the most difficult, the brand created a scenario where the father-daughter duos could come and audition for an ad, not knowing it was an ad for Stayfree, giving birth to the idea of 'It's just a Period'.

Execution

As part of the awareness campaign, fathers and daughters were asked to audition for a Daughter’s Day ad. They just did not know what the ad was about.

As the video proceeded, the fathers realized what their conversation was actually about. Periods. As they fumbled through the conversation, the brand encouraged them to continue with the audition. By the end of it, the script helped fathers overcome their awkwardness to assure their daughters that it’s just a period. 

The audition was released online on Daughter’s Day 2021 across all digital platforms, taking both the participants and the viewers on a journey of discovery and acceptance. Charting a million emotions, it aims to underline the truth that the shame and stigma that surrounds the subject of menstruation can be easily dissolved when fathers and mothers, both, shoulder the responsibility – having the first conversation in the right way. 

Also Read: Case Study: How Skybags garnered 29 mn+ reach ft. Remo D’Souza generating UGC with its rap anthem & engagement campaign

Results

Quantitative

The campaign film reached 19.7 million people across India. 

• Impressions - 45 Mn+
• Engagement rate - 24%, with men it was 51%
• Views - 14.4 Mn+
• VTR - 61%

The brand saw a 2.5x rise in registrations from parents for Stayfree & Menstrupedia’s for a month-long workshop on understanding menstruation. Out of which 25% of registrations were of fathers alone. 

Qualitative

Most importantly, people engaged in dialogue. In a matter of days, the brand garnered 23 million page views from fathers learning about periods and comment boards lit up with discussions, proving that one awkward conversation can spark a lasting change. 

Quote

Speaking about the campaign, Manoj Gadgil, Vice President Marketing, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Division, India, said, “Stayfree has always stood for enabling a healthy relationship between a girl and her periods – be it through our products or thought-provoking campaigns. Normalizing period conversations is core to what Stayfree stands for and through this campaign we encourage parents and fathers in particular, to let go of the awkwardness and have a conversation with their daughters on menstrual periods, one frank chat at a time.”

Editor's Note

Awards & accolades such as Spikes Asia have often played an integral role, in bringing some of the most intriguing and impactful campaigns from around the world, to the front. While as an industry, we have a certain idea of which were some of the most amazing campaigns, there is often a knowledge gap as to how did these campaigns come into existence? What went behind making the campaign? What were the steps taken to execute and eventually distribute it?

Spikes Asia Case Studies is a small attempt by Social Samosa, towards understanding what goes behind making a winning campaign? First in our series is Stayfree's It's Just A Period, which won a Silver at Spikes Asia 2022. Watch this space as we add the case studies to more campaigns from India that won big at the awards.

-Saloni Surti