If women’s periods remain taboo in India, how much more so is prostitution, yet feminine hygiene brand Stayfree found a way to take on both issues and increase sales – an achievement which won it the Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix at Spikes Asia.

The Spikes Asia Awards are a leading regional award scheme for excellence in creative communications; the 2019 awards were announced on Friday and a selection of winners are available to read on WARC.

Project Free Period set out to broaden the horizons of women working in the sex trade; unable to work on period days, Stayfree came up with the idea of using that time to teach them employable skills.

A partnership with anti-trafficking NGOs created a curriculum of skills that could generate alternative sources of income for students, ranging from candle-making and embroidery to henna/ mehendi application and basic beauty services.

Given the taboos around the subject, conversations took place online via social, with influencers and celebrities recruited to the cause, while retailers and educational institutions also leant support. Training videos allowed the scheme to scale.

The brand’s main product reported a 19% growth rate in Q1 2019 compared to a year earlier and, in a category where penetration is low, also helped drive wider category sales at the same time.

The campaign reached out to more than 11,000, but the impact of this program went wider generating a reach of 2.2 billion when the impact of social and PR are taken into account.

Sourced from Spikes Asia