Last October Richard Neill left a snarky but amusing comment on Bodyform’s Facebook page.

Within a few hours of posting, the comment had started to go viral. And within a few days it had 20k+ Facebook 'Likes' and was starting to get featured on influential sites such as Mashable.

Bodyform and her agencies immediately saw an opportunity that rarely presented itself to feminine hygiene brands:

1. To engage with audiences in a social online environment

2. Poke fun at the wider social taboos surrounding periods

3. Do something genuinely fun / unexpected to force brand reappraisal

We wrote, filmed and seeded ‘Bodyform Responds :: The Truth’ in less than six days. The film clocked nearly 3 million views in its first week, and more than 3.8million views to date.

'Bodyform Responds...' was the 'Most Viewed' video on YouTube (Thursday 18th October) and trended on Twitter the day of release (Tuesday 16th October).

Deeper social engagement reveals 82k+ Facebook actions, 6k+ Tweets and 98% 'Like' on YouTube.

Wider coverage included over 200 pieces of editorial in some of the most influential on and offline media: Mashable, The Times, Gawker, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Jezebel, New Statesman, Buzzfeed, The Sun, BBC Radio4 'Women's Hour', Laughing Squid, CNN, Telegraph, The Stylist and the Financial Times.

The original post, and the interest it solicited, was clearly tongue-in-cheek and we wanted to ensure that our response maintained a similar sense of humour.

It was also important that while we were addressing Richard directly we didn't do it in a manner that would either upset him, or make Bodyform look like they could not take a joke.

The script was written in 48hrs, the video shot over the weekend and the final film uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday 16th October within 7x days of the first Mashabe article appearing.

Once set 'public' the video was first sent directly to Richard Neill via Facebook. It was then seeded to all those either already engaged or potentially interested in this online conversation (around 100 sites or individuals in total).

In the same week that Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth; Bodyform also made headlines around the world with 'Bodyform Responds...'.

The video genuinely went viral with virtually no paid media support (there was about £2k spent on Google Ad Words to prevent 'Bodyform' from being hijacked).

It was credited as 'The Most Viewed Video' on YouTube on the day it was released (Wednesday 16th October) and the video trended on Twitter two days later.

Within a week the video had almost 3 million views and a very engaged audience who shared it 128k+ times through social actions on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

The editorial coverage was overwhelming with many major international news outlets covering the brand's response. These included features in: Huffington Post, BBC Radio4 'Woman's Hour', Jezebel, CNN, Gawker, Mashable, The New Statesman, Fast Company, Grazia, Laughing Squid, LA Times, Daily Mail and many, many others.