North American Effie Winner Spotlight: U by Kotex and Ogilvy & Mather’s “Generation Know”
U by Kotex, a line of feminine care products from Kimberly-Clark, was launched in 2010 with the intention of redefining the category. The brand aimed to empower women, encourage an open dialogue, and positively change how society views feminine health.
U by Kotex and agency partner Ogilvy & Mather created Generation Know, a campaign that set out to educate girls about their own bodies while building brand equity in a highly loyal category.
Generation Know, one of this year’s most Effie-winning campaigns in North America, took home Effies in the GoodWorks, Youth Marketing, and Engaged Community categories.
Campaign Summary: U by Kotex led the fem care category in being the cool, edgy brand, but competitors were attacking us as style over substance. We needed to build meaning around U by Kotex, making it a force of genuine, positive change for girls. Taboos around vaginas damage young women, so we created “Generation Know” to bring about the first generation of girls who were empowered and informed about their vaginas. Hundreds of thousands of girls helped us spread knowledge, change society’s views on feminine health, and increase sales 18%.
Katie Moran, Group Planning Director at Ogilvy and Mather, shared her perspective on how the Generation Know team empowered women and strengthened the U by Kotex brand.
How do you define effective marketing in one sentence?
KM: Work that drives immediate and sustained ROI.
What was the key insight that led to the “big idea” behind “Generation Know?”
KM: In North America women are more empowered then ever before, and yet they are ashamed about the very essence that makes them a women - their vagina.
You identified your target audience as teens (13-19) and young women (20-35). What was the strategy behind your approach in reaching this group effectively?
KM: To more effectively get girls to engage with this idea, the brand partnered with millennial thought leaders to help us spread the word. We researched bloggers, YouTubers, writers, Kickstarters, and advice columnists. We landed on four fearless leaders, and worked with each of them to craft their perfect project that girls wanted to engage with.
What’s next? How has the campaign evolved and what can you tell us about how U by Kotex will continue this movement?
KM: U by Kotex will keep taking on issues the category. We started by calling out the unrealistic way your period is portrayed in communications, then we worked to bring girls together to have an open conversation about their vaginas, next we will start to call out how the category is failing women in other ways.
What are you most proud of about the Generation Know campaign?
KM: No women should ever be ashamed or embarrassed about any part of their body. With 80% of girls feeling like they shouldn’t talk about their vaginas it had become a source of shame. Generation Know was a first step to getting girls to be more comfortable and even embrace their vagina.
KM: All great ideas take a village. Without Vicki Azarian, Tara Allerton, Calle Sjoenell, and Harper Hagedorn, this would have never happened.
Also hats off to our KC clients, who saw the potential in this idea and are constantly pushing the boundaries of this category.
To read more about “Generation Know,” visit the Effie Case Database.
For more information about the North American Effie Awards and the latest updates on the 2015 competition (the first entry deadline is October 14), visit www.effie.org.
Katie Moran is Group Planning Director at Ogilvy & Mather, serving as the global strategic lead on Kimberly Clark’s Kotex brand.
Share what you know now that you wish you'd known way back when or download the Girls for a Change Action Kit to become an agent for real social change in your community.
(P.S. Every time you share the facts, U By Kotex will donate* $1 to Girls for a Change)
This year alone GFC provided free health empowerment workshops to over 700 girls across the US & Canada and launched a Girl Ambassador program to help girls Get In The Know* about their bodies!
We need your support to keep running these amazing opportunities for young people! You can help by donating to Girls For A Change during the Amazing Raise at www.giverichmond.com.
Guest Post: Generation Know* Girl Ambassador Alice Wilder
The following blog is post is from Alice Wilder, who is a trained Girl Ambassador for Generation Know*. She is also an activist with SPARK Movement and currently attends UNC-Chapel Hill. You can follow her on Twitter at @Alice_Wilder.
At our Generation Know training retreat our leader Patricia told us to think about how we are in the world. She asked us how we will “be as a girl ambassador.” I was sure I already knew how I would be. I started out the month of April with a formal list of scheduled events to talk about Generation Know with our communities. But my summer ended up taking me in a different direction. I dealt with my last high school exams, and a long grueling move across the city.
For me, being a Girl Ambassador has ended up being more than just scheduled events. It’s about being the person who brings up periods in conversations with girlfriends and brings the Generation Know information.
One of my favorite moments doing this summer was going to the beach with my cousins. We’re all girls, ages 12 to 20+ and somehow the topic of tampons came up. One cousin shared that she didn’t know where her vagina was until she used a tampon, and my youngest cousin told us about her first period, which was more recent than all of ours. We were walking on the beach during this conversation so I stopped in my tracks and knelt to the wet sand. I drew a vulva in the sand and pointed out each part from labia to vagina. There were a few awkward laughs, but that’s what being a girl ambassador is about- being one to take a typically awkward conversation and make it fun. I felt a deeper bond with my younger cousin, who I don’t get to see very often. She is right at the age where period myths are running rampant and girls are curious about their bodies but scared to ask questions. It may not have been a formal seminar, but giving her that information meant that she would take it back to her town in Texas and to all her friends. My time as a girl ambassador ends in December but I know that I’ll always be one. When my family has questions I hope they’ll feel comfortable reaching out to me.
Your mother is probably one of the many women out there who has been misinformed about tampons from generations of tradition and taboo. Or she may have had a bad experience with them when she was younger. Try explaining to her that you think tampons would make you more comfortable and that you don't have a problem with the pain she thinks they'll give you if it benefits you in the long run. After all, it is your body and you should be able to decide how you want to care for it. A good resource for convincing parents to let you use tampons is Generation Know from U by Kotex. You can go to ubykotex.com and look through some of their period myths and facts page with your mother so that she can become more comfortable with the idea. I hope she comes around :)
