This is the story of how we reinvigorated a brand by tackling one of society’s most powerful taboos. Our strategy dared to harness the category’s untapped driver – sex, and we boldly reframed the brand’s functional benefit into a more emotional connection with its customers. In doing so, we gave the brand new relevance, and we recovered sales from its biggest business drivers. The ‘Sex Never Gets Old’ campaign smashed a cultural taboo and completely rewrote the narrative about older bodies and sex. This case illustrates the power of creative strategy to reposition a brand from lagging-behind to leading the

Replens was a vaginal moisturiser that needed to find relevance in the modern world.

The conversation around female bodies and ageing had shifted from the clinic to culture, but Replens was stuck in medical scrubs. Women saw the brand as a serious, medical and functional treatment, and swerved it in favour of other competitors seen as more modern, everyday “lifestyle” options.

In 2021, the situation was critical. Sales of Replens slumped while the category held steady through 19/20. The two major volume drivers of the business – London and pharmacy retailer Boots — were in deep trouble. Sales in the city of London were down 26%. Sales in Boots were down 17%.

With limited budget to activate the campaign in 2021 nationally, our objectives were twofold:

? Land a new emotional idea to establish Replens’ relevancy

? Recover sales in London and Boots – major business drivers for the brand

The business challenge the brand was facing

Interpretation of the client needs and brand values

Industry/ target market

The desired outcome

The conversation about ageing and menopause had changed, but one topic remained a taboo: sex in old age.

Although ‘sexual intercourse’ was one of the top 3 main reasons women considered vaginal moisturisers, no brand dared to talk about it publicly and openly. Even the most outspoken brands in the category avoided the topic, focusing purely on dryness and discomfort.

But here’s what we found in our research: discomfort was merely the rational problem. But the truly damaging impact of vaginal dryness was on intimacy. That’s where the true, deep emotional trauma lay. Women talked about vaginal dryness as the ‘passion killer’ and confided in us it made them feel ‘unattractive’ and ‘unfeminine’.

The root cause of this negativity however wasn’t in them it was out in the world.

Culture shapes our attitudes about the world and about ourselves – and culture treats older sexuality as something disgusting, laughable, or non-existent.

Our cultural research found that incest, or a woman mating with a car, were easy to see in film or TV, but scenes between two older people having sex are an absolute no-go.

Our survey confirmed this negative perception: only 5% of our respondents thought society had a positive view of people over age 55 enjoying intimacy.

So, we decided to rewrite the cultural narrative about older bodies and sex.

We reframed the brand’s benefit – one application lasts for 3 days - so the proposition was a long-lasting moisturiser for a long-lasting sex life. Still about comfort, but now also about spontaneity, and celebration, and confidence: a much more emotive platform.

In doing so, we repositioned Replens not only as a moisturizer, but as an intimacy enhacer.

Our taboo-smashing campaign celebrated sex in later life through powerful portraits of diverse older couples enjoying the pleasures of intimacy, under the simple message of ‘Sex Never Gets Old’.

The imagery and headlines emphasised a range of experiences and moments, from ‘touch never gets old” to ‘intimacy never gets old’. This was directly influenced by our research with older people where a key insight was that intimacy wasn’t just about the sexual act, but the broader canvas of human connection.

The photographs we wanted – intimate, emotional, but never exploitative – were near-impossible to find, demonstrating the cultural problem. So we shot some of the images ourselves, adding to the cultural collateral that’s needed to create change.

The full 360 campaign spanned social, digital radio, PR and ran across London’s biggest OOH inventory after winning Transport for London’s Diversity In Advertising competition, scooping £500,000 of free space.

The campaign hit an emotional chord and made Replens culturally relevant. From consumers to diversity experts to industry leaders and celebrities, everyone joined in the campaign to amplify the message and help change the public’s perception of what it means to become older.

? The campaign delivered over 150M impressions.

? Online mentions of the brand increased 700%

? Paid digital and social engagement doubled the benchmark

The London campaign has also proven the commercial effectiveness of the campaign and outlined a bright new path for the brand.

Sales of Replens in London increased 17% yoy while other UK regions contracted or remained stagnated.

Driven by London, sales in Boots grew by 13% yoy, exceeding the brand’s pre-pandemic levels.

This campaign marked a turning point in Replens's history and given its impact and success the brand is planning a wider UK rollout, with other markets running the campaign as well.

Our cultural research found that incest, or a woman mating with a car, were easy to see in film or TV, but scenes between two older people having sex are an absolute no-go.

Our survey confirmed this negative perception: only 5% of our respondents thought society had a positive view of people over age 55 enjoying intimacy.

So, we decided to rewrite the cultural narrative about older bodies and sex.

We reframed the brand’s benefit – one application lasts for 3 days - so the proposition was a long-lasting moisturiser for a long-lasting sex life. Still about comfort, but now also about spontaneity, and celebration, and confidence: a much more emotive platform.

In doing so, we repositioned Replens not only as a moisturizer, but as an intimacy enhacer.