Bodyform (ESSITY) is a global challenger brand (#6) in Feminine Care. The ‘Live Fearless’ brand mission is to dismantle taboos around women’s bodies that hold them back.

#Bloodnormal and Viva la Vulva were the two most famous ban-defying and boundary-pushing campaigns that dynamited shame in women’s health - showing red period blood for the first time, and representing proud diverse vulvas when the female anatomy had historically been erased, making women want to surgically erase their own anatomy.

The two campaigns were so revolutionary that many competitors were now copying our tropes and messages.

So we had to keep pushing to differentiate. As a challenger we had to keep punching above our weight by being outstandingly meaningful to our audience.

What could be the next frontier?

The vivid, metaphorical descriptions we gathered through our listening project are the foundation of the creative executions. These descriptions were viscerally woven into our film through animation.

Our film acted as a catalyst giving people the bravery to share their own profound and poetic experiences which we then turned into more wombstories. Fueling a virtuous data circle: Our data created the stories, our stories created more data.

And this led us to the under researched subject of pain, and the first ever Pain Dictionary. Seeking to replace the outdated 1-10 pain scale which treats pain as an objective scale, the Pain Dictionary was written and illustrated entirely by endometriosis sufferers using our metaphorical method. Finally women are able to describe their own pain, while others are able to recognise theirs, which should lead to shorter diagnosis times.

By turning data on its head, we unlocked new ways of telling stories.

Data is only as good as the inputs it’s given. We asked the right questions, and we listened – opening up a new radically empathetic way of gathering qualitative data, and bringing it to life, to better understand and express wombstories and painstories.

Wombstories turns data into beautiful metaphorical depiction of untold stories that need to be told. Sparking a million much-needed conversations. Painstories takes the approach and turns it into a practical tool –– to diagnose and express pain.

Our extensive qualitative research project, The Pain Report, takes this data method into the world of academia, exploring the pain gap worldwide through interviews with experts and patients, identifying key diagnostic barriers – like the 1-10 pain scale – by asking the right questions. Whilst The Pain Dictionary foregrounds the subjective experience of people with endometriosis, The Pain Report pushes the needle forwards on a cultural and systemic level: one gives us new language for pain, the other shows us why we so desperately need it.

By finding a new way to listen and collect data and daring to show what we heard, Wombstories has been an exploding cultural bomb.

100 million views.

Launched in 26 markets (smashing previous campaign benchmarks)

Shared in 132 countries.

Market share increased 8.1% UK, 14.1% Russia, 9.9% Denmark.

1.5billion reach (UK)

No 1 share of social voice (UK)

200% increase in social followers.(UK)

Trending on social.

Wombstories has given people the bravery to share their own stories sparking millions of conversations. Which we turned into more wombstories fuelling more sharing. Wombstories is making systemic change in the way data is collected on women’s pain, and the way pain is diagnosed. The Pain Dictionary and medical research “Pain Report” has been praised by doctors.

Wombstories has been good for the brand. But it has been transformative for women. And for their health and wellbeing.