2017 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Targeting young girls is extremely challenging, especially in a market like Lebanon in which teenagers are exposed to numerous messages each day. Their only trusted sources are their friends. So we decided to create a virtual character to befriend the young teenage girls and understand them. One year ago, Kotex released a new sanitary pad that did not garner a warm reception by its core audience. 400,000 girls rejected both the level of quality of the product and the product’s new packaging. They took to social media to express their dissatisfaction, resulting in 45% drop in sales and a drop in equity. Our challenge was to rectify this audience’s negative experience and regain their trust with a budget of $40,000. Kimberly-Clark were going to pull the Kotex brand out of Lebanon’s market if the sales did not pick up and the objectives were not met. Our campaign was led by the insight that meaningful and intimate friendships are built across all life stages, but particularly during adolescence, when girls really need each other’s support. However, at this stage in life girls feel embarrassed and don’t easily open up to such intimate subjects. So we created “Kay,” a virtual friend for the girls to befriend and entrust with their intimate concerns and questions. Our campaign was planned across three stages: Initiating conversation and establishing a friendship, participating in polls and conversation with our audience, and then the creation of a new crowd-sourced sanitary pad. We therefore scanned conversations to create believable real-time dialogue on behalf of KAY on the Kotex Facebook page. Once Kay had established a friendship with our audience, she began more intimate discussions about what girls liked and disliked about their current pad, and if they could design their perfect pad, which features they would include. Kay launched polls and invited her new friends to vote for the best enhancements. Finally, Kotex used the feedback to create the ideal sanitary pad for our audience, featuring soft wings, a new shape for a more secure fit, faster absorption, dual-cover protection, and enhanced comfort. The campaign reversed four years of historic decline in sales within only four months, achieving sales of over 231,000 units and exceeding our target by 54%. “Kay” was so engaging and believable as a friend that girls on the page started posing questions directly to her. The conversation continued long after the campaign was over, so Kotex launched a website and a mobile app to address girls’ ongoing questions for Kay, creating a new direct customer communications channel.