Women are used to their periods being a taboo topic, so when Nike started talking about hers openly, positively, and as a superpower, followers everywhere responded enthusiastically. We knew it was time to bring her period into sport in a loud, proud and positive way. We visualised her period using a bright, vibrant red and a bouncing graphical dot that accompanied all assets, and the word ‘Period’ wrapped up all comms.

We then placed this loud and proud messaging and visual identity across our social channels and partner channels: Nike are putting Periods at the frontline of female training.

The Nike Training Club App is used by 27,000 women daily as a way to train and reach new performance levels. But they’re currently training using sports science based around the male physiology. But women are not just small men. Her complex menstrual cycle influences her energy levels, recovery, metabolism and more.

We went to Nike with the proactive idea of helping women everywhere see that training is possible every day of the month. It was time to reshape how we talk to women about training – using their menstrual cycles as the basis of all our knowledge.

This had never been done before – sports and periods are rarely discussed together, with women wrongly assuming that they need to rest on bleed days. But if they understand the powerful hormones at play throughout the month, they can harness the power of their cycle, prevent injury and reach new limits.

NikeSync: A training program for people with periods, so she can harness the power of her period and feel like exercise is accessible to her every day of the month.

We wanted to revolutionise how women train. The fluctuating hormones of the menstrual cycle mean she is primed for certain workouts at certain times. Firstly, we wanted to create workouts that allow her to train in sync with her hormones using the Nike Training Club App. We know women are using the NTC app to train daily, but they’re selecting workouts at random, when they could actually be given workouts that are tailored to their hormones on any given day.

Secondly, we wanted to educate women on their physiology as this level of education is not available through the school curriculum and leads to women being unaware of the powers that are at play in their own body.

Truth: Her period is a training barrier due to a lack of understanding and overriding training methodology based on male physiology.

Opportunity: Become the first sports brand to enable her to understand and manage the impact of her cycle on her performance.

Whilst more athletes and coaches speak out about understanding and managing the impact of her menstrual cycle on performance, it’s yet to be addressed in mainstream apps. Nike could play a key role in empowering women to overcome daily barriers, as we embrace the unspoken acts of womanhood to help her deal with the daily barriers to training.

Goal: Enable her to feel like fitness is accessible for her every day of the month.

We partnered with Stacy Sims to gather the data necessary for breaking her cycle into 3 defined phases, so we could create a training program aligned to her hormones.

After working with Stacy Sims (Female Athlete Performance Expert) to define the 3 phases of her cycle, we launched the NikeSync training program on the Nike Training Club app in February 2021. A collection of workouts that are tailored to the 3 phases of her cycle with a strong digital identity to help portray the science.

Nike members were pushed to the NikeSync workout collection through social content on @nikewomen, email, editorial in app, and a Menstrual Cycle Audio Guided Run promoted by Nike pro athletes (Paula Radcliffe). It was also launched on the Gurls Talk Podcast.

Throughout the year, we launched educational editorial across social and the Nike App. From articles on how her cycle affects stress, immunity and cravings, to a dedicated Never Asked Questions series that busted taboos on her period. This holistic digital approach enabled her to take control of her cycle and its fluctuating hormones.

- +60% Increase of engagement in our Push Notification OR vs. average

- Over 19% engagement rate and 3,3K impressions for the Article Page on Nike.com

- +199% Retained Female members on a weekly basis vs SP20

- High Engagement and Deep Community Connection: Positive comments kept on coming across the ecosystem – highest follows and clicks for @nikewomen since August 2020

- Work was picked up by The Drum, IBB Online, Campaign, The Gurls Talk Podcast.