#LikeAGirl

2016

#LikeAGirl

GRAND PRIX

Best Insight (GOLD)
Canadian Success on The Global Stage (GOLD)
Client Credits: Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble

Agency Credits: Leo Burnett Toronto, Chicago, London/Holler
Leo Burnett Toronto, Chicago, London/Holler
Chief Creative Officer: Judy John
Creative Director: Judy John, Becky Swanson
Digital Creative Director: Milos Obradovic
Copywriter: AJ Hassan, Angel Capobianco
Art Director: Hmi Hmi Gibbs, Nick Bygraves
Agency Producer: Adine Becker
Director: Lauren Greenfield
Production Company: Chelsea Films
Editor: Kathryn Hempel
Editing Company: Cutters
Brand Planners: Karuna Rawal, Anna Coscia, Rachel Darville
Digital Planner: Laura Jones
Account Lead: Annette Sally
Account Management: Heidi Philip, Gaia Gilardini, Sandy Kolkey, Lisa Bamber, Susan Lulich
Account Management: Shaina Holtz, Matteo Carcassola
Participation Director: Jake Bruene
Media Agency: Starcom MediaVest Group
Starcom MediaVest UK, Associate Director: Laura Cardenas-Garcia
Starcom MediaVest UK, Associate Director: Joanna Poulton
Starcom MediaVest UK, Associate Director: Nic Jones
Starcom MediaVest UK, Planning Manager: Rhianwen Hart
PR Agency: MSLGROUP
Director of Corporate Communications & Marketing, North America: Michael Echter

Section I — BASIC INFORMATION

Business Results Period (Consecutive Months): June 2014 – June 2015
Start of Advertising/Communication Effort: June 26, 2014
Base Period as a Benchmark: June 2013 – June 2014

Section II — SITUATION ANALYSIS
a) Overall Assessment

“Check out the functional benefits of this pad” posted @NoTeenEver.

For decades, the Feminine Hygiene category successfully built brands through advertising that showcased functional superiority benefits. Always, the category leader was a master at this. However, the landscape was drastically shifting to become more social. Women and girls were looking for content beyond product stories.

Brands like UbyKotex and HelloFlo were creating relevant social voices that were changing category conversation and we found ourselves quickly losing relevance with our girls. Although girls loved the Always brand at shelf, our functional focus had only successfully captured their “heads” not their “hearts.” Our unaided awareness had decreased in the beginning of 2014, and we wanted to act fast.1 If we didn’t start acting like a true leader by building an emotional connection and relevancy, we’d soon cede our #1 position.

To most girls, Always was as cool as homework on a Friday night.

Girls didn’t know what Always stood for nor did they care to—it was a trusted, familiar brand but one that they saw as their mom’s. But for over 30 years, Always had a bigger purpose—to champion girls’ confidence by educating her during the critical time of puberty. No one knew this, though, because we weren’t talking about it. We knew it was time to leverage the social sphere to let our girls and the world know what our true reason for being was. If we wanted to become a part of a relevant social conversation, we had to bring this to life and talk about something that meant something to her. To show her that we were truly committed to our purpose, we decided to move beyond just conversation to create a real-life impact that would truly empower our girls.

Could we transform a brand rooted in functionality and hidden in shopping carts to one that meant something so meaningful it sparked change in the most public of places?

b) Resulting Business Objectives

We had set out three objectives:

• Drive an emotional connection to Always, especially amongst teens, and move the needle in overall equity scores.

• Drive popularity of the brand through top-of-mind awareness.

• Drive brand penetration by measuring purchase intent of pre- and post-exposure to the campaign.

c) Annual Media Budget
$1 – $2 million

d) Geographic Area
North America

1 US Feminine Care Brand Health Tracker through July 2014

Section III — STRATEGIC THINKING
a) Analysis and Insight

We set out to champion the girls who were the future of our brand.

Girls first come in contact with Always at puberty, a time when they face a curveball like none they’ve experienced before. The unfamiliar physical and emotional changes that came with puberty leave girls feeling awkward and unconfident. This was a pivotal time to genuinely show girls our purpose and champion their confidence. While it seemed natural to talk to girls and their moms about this time in their lives, we knew to truly make a change, we’d need help from those driven to create one. So we decided to tap into a powerful group of girls between the ages of 18-24. These were the girls buying our product for the first time on their own and leveraging their newfound shopping power. They were young enough to relate to the awkward life stage of puberty, ambitious enough to make a difference and more connected than any generation before them. With their help, Always could create a step change in the lives of girls during puberty, keeping them confident even if they believed their bodies were holding them back.

Rooted in our brand purpose, we tapped into a time when girls need to feel more confident but feel less.

Our research showed that girls’ confidence plummets during puberty, significantly more than boys’. And what was worse was that the confidence lost during this time rarely comes back, and if it does, it’s not until much later in life. 3

During puberty, girls quickly go from believing they can take on the world to finding themselves questioning everything. And at this vulnerable time, these feelings are reinforced through the media, experiences in school and even playground vernacular. They begin walking a fine line between having been proud to be a girl their whole lives, to now questioning if being a girl is even a good thing. Reinforcing these doubts were common playground insults of being “like a girl,” which further damaged their confidence. When did gender, the very essence of one’s being, become a put-down? As a brand that stood for girls’ confidence, we knew this was the place where we could make a huge difference.

b) Communication Strategy

It was important to us that our #LikeAGirl message become more than just another 30-second ad, but instead become a part of popular culture. So we picked media placement that had become a leader in stirring conversation, and we used a #hashtag strategy, true to our brand purpose, to aggregate the conversation.

• Social: Paid support appeared primarily on YouTube and was accompanied by paid Twitter and Facebook posts. The #LikeAGirl video ran as pre-roll on YouTube, which was chosen as the primary vehicle because it was the leader in stirring cultural conversations through video content. Our message had to be more than just a paid 30-second ad—it needed to become ingrained into popular culture

• OLV: Long-format online video would be the centrepiece of our effort. We used a 4-minute “social experiment” to take the viewer on a journey of self-realization.

• Influencer Outreach to add fuel to the conversation from experts that carry credibility with our audiences (this is new)

3 Always Puberty & Confidence Study, May 22, 2014 through May 28, 2014

Section IV — KEY EXECUTIONAL ELEMENTS
a)Media Used

• Interactive/Online

• Social Media

• PR

b)Creative Discussion

We brought the idea to life by conducting a social experiment to see how people pre- and post-puberty interpret the phrase “like a girl.”

Our hypothesis was that if we asked girls pre-puberty to do things “like a girl,” they’d do it in a strong and confident way, but if we asked older girls and young women, we may see something different. We invited a group of girls, boys, men and women to participate in a filmed social experiment. Documentarian and director Lauren Greenfield asked the participants to do a series of actions “like a girl.” Our hypothesis held true, especially with the females. Girls pre-puberty, ages 5-13, performed each action without any inhibitions, throwing karate kicks, running and fighting with all their might. The older girls, post-puberty, started to perform the actions with hesitancy, mockingly flopping their hands when asked to run or fight “like a girl.” It became clear that somewhere between puberty and adulthood, women internalized the phrase “like a girl” to mean a bad thing.

To reverse the negative meaning of the phrase, we leveraged the social hashtag #LikeAGirl as our call to action in the video; this became our rallying cry.

The hashtag was native to the idea of our campaign. Leveraging a hashtag strategy invited participation by encouraging girls to let the world know what they were proudly doing “like a girl.” The hashtag allowed us to amplify and aggregate the conversation throughout social platforms. We made it a priority to have our team on-call throughout the launch of the campaign to respond in real time to girls as they shared their posts. This encouraged and supported a community of people inspired by the power of these words.

c)Media Discussion

The #LikeAGirl video launched with earned media on June 26, 2014, and limited paid support, making earned crucial to the momentum and success of our campaign.

Unprecedented coverage from the media and influencers fueled a movement and conversation around the globe. PR initiatives targeted top-tier media such as Good Morning America, The Huffington Post, CNN.com, MarieClaire.com and PeopleEnEspanol.com. Paid tweets from celebrities like Vanessa Hudgens and Bella Thorne sparked organic celebrity tweets from Sarah Silverman, Cher, Kristen Bell, George Takei and Tyler Oakley.

To our astonishment, we even gained organic support on social from powerful female leaders including Maria Shriver, Chelsea Clinton and Melinda Gates as well as more than 20 prominent female organizations, such as Lean In, Girl Scouts, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, Girl Rising and Global Fund for Women, all of which helped to spread the word about the #LikeAGirl campaign.

Paid support appeared primarily on YouTube and was accompanied by paid Twitter and Facebook posts as well as influencer outreach.

The #LikeAGirl video ran as pre-roll on YouTube, which was chosen as the primary vehicle because it was the leader in stirring cultural conversations through video content. Our message had to be more than just a paid 30- second ad—it needed to become ingrained into popular culture.

We quickly saw how the #LikeAGirl campaign struck a deep chord and rallied women around the world to share it and express their support. Our digital video sparked a social movement garnering over 76 million views that eventually spread to 22 global markets and inspired society to change the meaning of “like a girl” to mean downright amazing things.

Section V — BUSINESS RESULTS
a) Sales/Share Results

Brand share grew +1.4pts, to 59.6%.

b) Consumption/ Usage Results

c) Other Pertinent Results

#LikeAGirl became the #1 viral video in the world, with 85 million views globally4

    • Grew top-of-mind awareness by +6 points from 77% to 83% amongst our rep and 9 points from 49% to 58% amongst our target5
    • We surpassed our goal of earned impressions-250 million-with 4.58 billion global impressions, 39% coming from the US. Earned video views were 2 times the industry benchmark.6
    • One million people shared the video7.
    • 290 million social impressions, 133,000 social mentions 8
    • We increased our Twitter followers by 195.3%9

    Became the #1 Brand Digital Activation for the XLIX Super Bowl 10

    • Digital SOV: 9% (ix 115 > #2 Bud)
    • Twitter: 2.7x #2 Brand (Coca-Cola)
    • #2 ad of the more than 60 ads (>50% reach with Women 12-34)11
    • #1 Highest positive sentiment (84% of mentions: admiration and joy)12
    • 5.486 000 000 impressions
    • >30 celebrity endorsement Tweets (Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Malala, Demi Lovato, Paula Abdul, LeAnn Rimes, Erin Andrews to name a few) 13
    • Trade Results: Post SB vs. Pre SB for Always Pads NA Dollars up 5% vs pre SB, $share was up 1% vs pre SB

    laimed purchase intent increased post-campaign + 4% (from 42% to 46%). With teens, it grew +50% amongst our target, from 40% to 60%.3

    Dollar Share grew +1.4 pts to 59.6%

    After #LAG exposure, brand relevancy & appeal are significantly higher among moms of teens (+9pts and +26pts), teens (+25pts and +33pts) and non-buyers +20pts & 17pts 14

    Emotional connection amongst rep US increased by 3% (from 38% to 41%). 15 Always Pads Equityincreased by 3.3 points (from 38.1 to 41.4), while most competitors saw slight declines 16

    a. “Makes me feel confident” increased 6 points (37 to 43), #LikeAGirl achieved 53% of reach withW13-34 in the US 17

    b. Ad Recall was 6.5 times the US norm (47% vs. 7%)18

    c. #LikeAGirl is at the absolute top, above best in class in Google’s database (Ad Recall +59.6% vs.+9.4% for US)19

    d) Return on Investment

    • #LAG ROI is at $2.56, Ix 114 vs. total FY1314 (inc. #LAG) and Ix 186 vs. FY1213. 20

    4 Campaign Live UK first 2 weeks after launch
    5 US Brand Health Tracker July vs. June, across market activities where #LAG as most prominent
    6 MSL Communications Report, August2014
    7 CisionJuly2014
    8 IBID
    9 Twitter.com/Always
    10 (Always/Whilstser #LikeAGirl Super Bowl Close Out Report, March2015)
    11 IBID
    12 IBID
    13 IBID
    3
    US Brand Health Tracker July vs. June, across market activities where #LAG as most prominent
    14 The Feminine Side, P&G; CMKNA, Feb2015
    15 US Brand Health Tracker July vs. June, across market activities where #LAG as most prominent
    16 IBID
    17 IBID
    18 IBID
    19 Google Brand Lift Study
    20 #LAG 1.0 MMM ROI data– US, Jul’14

    Section VI — CAUSE & EFFECT BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND RESULTS
    a)General Discussion

    Always communications were functionally rooted on the product for years. This campaign -rooted in a deeper, powerful human insight-was what deeply resonated with people throughout North America, specifically amongst young girls.

    b)Excluding Other Factors
    Spending Levels:

    Higher VYA

    Pricing:

    Product prices for Always SKUs remained the same as the previous year

    Distribution Changes:

    Distribution for Always products remained the same as the previous year

    Unusual Promotional Activity:

    Specific #LikeAGirl promotion was launched VYA

    Other Potential Causes:

    N/A