Social media has come under intensified scrutiny in recent years, creating challenges for advertisers. However, when used in the right way, it is a powerful tool to open meaningful conversations with consumers.

Our campaign was based on a key insight that came directly from our target audience: young people don't understand or feel reassured by tampon instructions – the most crucial piece of information they have on correct tampon use and period hygiene.

We turned tampon instructions themselves into a media asset to communicate the brand's message, using insight from social conversations with the target audience

1 in 2 people experience periods and tampons are a safe and discreet option. However Tampax, the UK and Ireland’s No.1 tampon brand, was swimming upstream against a content torrent of misinformation online and on social media – from the myth that non-organic tampons leak dangerous chemicals into young people’s bodies, to the fear around tampons ‘taking your virginity’. This was affecting sales across the category as a whole.

Tampax asked us to cut through the negative noise and help young people make more informed decisions, dispelling myths while increasing positive brand sentiment.

Social media is a hotbed of misinformation, so we needed to break through with accurate and open support for potential tampon users and the worries they face.

To dig deeper into our young audience’s tampon fears, we turned to female social publisher Tyla. Women's health is one of their most-read topics among their audience of 10 million, making them the perfect platform.

We created a research poll and Instagram story quiz for Tyla that received 20k responses and determined what tampon myths our audience wanted busting. This provided a safe space for sharing tampon concerns they might be embarrassed to ask in person.

We learnt 59% of Tyla’s audience struggled using tampons – despite the instructions inside the box. 39% admitted to not reading the instructions at all. And of those that did, only 3% found them reassuring.

The instructions are the most crucial piece of content ensuring safe, informed use of tampons. We decided to completely redesign them, using insight from the audience they were intended to help and shared via formats they were familiar with.

We took the conversation online to combat the misinformation at its source and let the audience get involved in the conversation.

We know our young audience use and trust Instagram so we published our content here, making use of all its formats: Instagram stories for a Q&A to garner audience insights and inform the creative, carousels to display the new instructions in an easy-to-digest, visual way and video for storytelling around the campaign.

A relatable personality with influencer power was needed to make the traditionally taboo subject approachable. We chose Tyla audience favourite Scarlett Moffatt, known for her down-to-earth commentary on popular British TV show Gogglebox. To provide the facts, we also recruited women’s health taboo-smasher and Instagrammer Dr Brooke Vandermolen who has built a successful following as ‘The OBGYN Mum’.

We created three IGTV films capturing our new instruction's journey.

First Scarlett presented Dr Brooke with tampon myths and questions identified from our poll and Instagram story. Dr Brooke provided the facts, including demonstrating how to insert a tampon on a jam doughnut – evading the platform censors in an educational but entertaining way.

We then captured Scarlett meeting illustrator Asa Ariyoshi to create the new instructions. Swapping clinical diagrams for colour and medical jargon for comforting words of advice, time-lapses showed the guide forming as the pair drew from their own experiences.

Finally, we met people from Tyla's audience who struggled using tampons. User-generated-content showed them unboxing our new instructions before trying tampons again for real with their help (off-camera!).

We also delivered the instructions right into the audience’s hands via a colourful, easily digestible Instagram carousel and on the Tampax website, for people to access as they please.

We successfully dispelled tampon myths, educated our audience and gave the instructions a long-needed makeover – making tampon use and period hygiene feel less scary for young people.

Our campaign reached 5 million people and had over 40,000 engagements. Importantly, we achieved a significant turnaround in sentiment and action:

70% of women who saw our campaign said they felt much more positive about Tampax as a result.

55% said they now agreed that Tampax are easy to use.

Nearly 1/3 said they had bought or were planning to buy Tampax after watching.

Tampax saw a 9% uplift in sales.

Our new instructions generated positive buzz across our audience, who applauded that the topic had been tackled head on. A whole host of comments flooded in, including: “Great video normalising these conversations”, “This should be shown in schools to young girls” and “Wish I had this when I was a teenager”.