Libresse is a challenger brand, #5 globally, behind the P&G giant Always. Outspent and dominated in store. To grow, we had to show our products were superior to the market leader. You might know of our brand from Bloodnormal, Viva la Vulva or Wombstories, where we became famous for having “shown period blood” for the first time, showing vulvas, and representing uteruses. Ironically, some detractors on social media were regularly asking, ‘What’s next? Poonormal?’. Although we had made huge progress to dynamite shame around menstrual blood, our logic hadn’t been a list of anatomical conquests. No, every single campaign we made was founded on a deep understanding of the structures of shame and how women+ relate to their bodies. We always put experience first - how do we remove shame and discomfort, and how do we do it in a way that makes our products supremely relevant to these experiences.

With Periodsomnia, we coined a term to make sense of all the struggles women+ go through at night around their periods. All those struggles swept under the carpet by everyone else, became our creative inspiration; the bleeding, the dreaming, the bloating, the tossing and turning. To do this, we worked as we always do, creative and strategy working together. The creative process was a continual dance bringing to life the dozens of insights we had unearthed. And while they spoke of rising heat, layers of underwear, libido’s going wild, and being stranded between sleep and wakefulness, they were speaking of a world hidden in the dark. Periodsomnia wasn’t just a film, it was a rallying cry to encourage women+ to join the quest for better sleep.

As a challenger brand, we had to show how our products were superior to the market leader. We boldly chose to focus on the night-time, the torture test of the market. We believed that by being extraordinarily relevant to women+, we would have a halo effect. We faced the night in a Libresse way, looking to where culture and the category were letting women+ down in their representations and asking women+ about their lived experience. Our breakthrough came when we conducted research with over 10, 000 women+ across the globe, making it clear that the shame and discomfort that permeates the experience of having your period in the day is intensified at night. By ignoring this experience, society was telling women+ that their problems weren’t ‘real’, leaving women+ feeling isolated in the dark. We set out to honour this reality, while highlighting how our products can help.

Periodsomnia is a truly global campaign. It’s launched in 32 markets since July 2022 and will continue throughout 2023 in China and Latin America. Our campaign orchestration sequenced across purpose and superiority led comms. We launched across TV, BVOD, Social and in store. In Love Island, the UK’s most-watched reality show and biggest perpetuator of the sleeping beauty myth, we exploded a bloody cultural bomb with our superiority TVC asset – a demo in the dark. We unshamed the stain across social assets in the UK turning shame into beauty. In Italy, we created a thermal filter for anyone to share their own periodsomnia. And with orgasm proven to increase pain tolerance in women by 74%, in the UK, we smashed the stigma around self-pleasure to help relieve period pain. We worked with influencers including Laura Whitmore, to invite women into an honest conversation around periods at night, de-stigmatising menstruation

We became the most complained ad on TV, every complaint was dismissed. Proving that Libresse is changing culture for women. One fan on social media said, ‘One of the most realistic ads for periods, no one sleeps comfortably when you’re literally dying of pain. This is how we survive it’. Key opinion leaders such as Lisa Sanfillipo, author of ‘Sleep is a feminist issue’, wrote to us saying ‘this campaign is a fresh take on something most women will have suffered in silence or not realised was a ‘thing.’ In broader culture, Grazia, You, and Glamour ran features crediting Libresse for bringing the topic to their attention. Periodsomnia was also a product campaign. We created Libresse’s most persuasive campaign to date. Gaining market share in all markets. In France, Libresse grew faster than the market reaching 14.3% (sales value growth). 63% of women+ said they were persuaded to try Libresse