When people begin to experience incontinence, many feel their active life is over. Users of Depend, the #1 absorbent underwear brand, are relatively young and not ready to slow down. The thought of wearing 'diapers', which they feel are for 'senile people in nursing homes', is mortifying and embarrassing. So when Depend introduced new briefs that look, fit and feel just like real underwear, we knew we had an opportunity to return a sense of normalcy to people with incontinence and help change the brand’s image – IF we could convince people to try the new products to see how truly different they are.

Communications had to be so category busting that consumers and media would be compelled to pay attention. We had to reframe the brand, often the butt of jokes by late-night talk show hosts, to one our target embraced. Enter, The Great American Try On (GATO) – a campaign that made Depend and incontinence part of a pop culture conversation and compelled consumers to try Depend for themselves. Working with unexpected and active role models – who didn’t need Depend – we showed how undetectable the product fit is, allowing people to continue doing the activities they loved while wearing Depend.

The Great American Try On boosted Depend trial 720%, increased weekly average sales 5.9%, earned 2.11 category share points, helped Depend regain category leadership and generated more than one billion media impressions. Also, for the first time ever, Depend and incontinence were trending topics on Twitter.

Actress Lisa Rinna wore Depend under a figure-hugging, red carpet dress to prove it fits like real underwear. In return, Depend donated to Dress for Success - an organization that helps improve women’s confidence.

Pro football players Clay Matthews, DeMarcus Ware and Wes Welker wore Depend under football uniforms for a donation to The V Foundation – an organization that funds research around prostate cancer, a leading cause of incontinence.

Created anticipation:

- Secured New York Times advance marketing feature.

- Informed late-night talk hosts of the public health benefits of normalizing incontinence to pre-empt jokes.

Maximized reach:

- Secured entertainment, lifestyle and sports media interviews.

- Celebrities promoted campaign in social media.

- Supplemented with controlled media: PSA, ANRs, B-roll.

Ensured depth of messaging:

- Rinna convinced The Talk co-host to try Depend for charity.

- Athletes challenged Jimmy Kimmel Live co-star to try Depend while playing football.

- Record sales! Depend regained category leadership! Weekly average sales increased 5.9%; category share increased 2.11 points.

- Most successful Depend sampling initiative! Sample requests increased 720%.

- Record website traffic! One million+ visits; nearly 350,000 on GATO page.

- Most successful Depend media launch ever! Depend became a pop culture phenomenon with 1.1+ billion earned impressions including two stories on TODAY, People, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Conan, ESPN, NFL Network. For the first time, media embraced vs. poked fun at Depend.

o More Magazine’s Lesley Jane Seymour: '…marketing [will] help an under-served audience that has needed help for a long time'.

o Almost 70% of coverage included key message: 'look, fit and feel of real underwear'.

o > 1/3 of coverage embedded at least one video, making earned media a key driver of video views.

o For first time ever, Depend and incontinence were trending topics on Twitter.