The Midol strategy that helped revive its fortunes

The strategy

The insight started with the brand relaunch kick-off meeting; rather than standard introductions, every member of the team shared their "period story" – the impact symptoms had on their quality of life. It was a jarring realization that every single woman at the table was compromised, and through their often-wrenching experiences, that none felt that she could do anything more than soldier through her symptoms.

Midol represented a genuine breakthrough in treating more than just pain –and treating all her symptoms literally meant reclaiming her life. We now had a mission – to acknowledge this debilitating reality, to make women aware that a multi-symptom solution existed and be an ally in getting her back to being her best self.

The insight was simple, and profound: you deserve to feel good every day of the month. This led to the articulation of the campaign idea, "Live Life M-Powered": symptoms in check, and normalcy reclaimed, through the power of Midol. We tested the concept with consumers, and women connected to it instantly, playing back not only the functional multisymptom benefits, but that Midol genuinely understood what they were going through – something no general analgesic in the medicine cabinet ever did.

In mapping our consumer's journey to purchase, it was important to understand who she trusted when looking for advice about her period symptoms. Unsurprisingly, her most reliable sources were her doctor, and her circle of trusted confidants. These were the two "safe spaces" where she could share exactly what was going on with her body. Our job was to bring that sense of trust and intimacy to her third "safe space": the internet.

Women search for information about period symptoms in massive numbers. We studied their language and terminology, how they described what they were experiencing. And in every medium, we activated women who looked and spoke just like them, to normalize the conversations and reflect back their realities – not only in the casting for the campaign, but across influencers, editors from health and women's publications, and yes, real doctors. Everyone spoke plainly and addressed the elephant in the room: For too long, we've been ignoring period symptoms, or just treating pain and letting the rest of them slide. No longer.

The activation

Midol's bold new color-blocked packaging became a key inspiration, fueling an ownable "Midol World" aesthetic for all the channel experts. We developed a "design shorthand" across the agency partners, ensuring that every medium, from a revamped organic social presence to advertising to in-store activations, felt "M-Powered": optimistic, colorful, straightforward, helpful, and culturally-attuned – and dramatically different than our competitors.

To ensure truly integrated channel planning, the agencies and client channel experts workshopped our target's decision-making process, helping each other to understand how each medium could uniquely "work its magic" to further our consumer's awareness of Midol, understand its multi-symptom proposition, and easily take a purchase action. Every activity that could be made "shoppable" during the pandemic connected her directly to an e-retailer, whether Amazon or another of the brand's retail partners. Agency and client channel owners actively connected the dots with one another, ensuring the hand-off from paid media, to owned channels, to retail was a seamless experience for the consumer, and addressed the brand's "jobs to be done".

The brand's unique earned-media activations were a stand-out in the mix. There was a "Girl's Night In" (one of the first Zoom media events post-lockdown) in which top editors and journalists asked their pressing period questions of Dr. Alyssa Dweck, Midol's Gyno-in-Residence, while wearing the comfy Midol-branded sweatpants and fluffy slippers we sent to their homes. Branded content programs in partnership with Refinery29 and the podcasters fondly known as Betches added additional trusted voices to the mix, and influencers recorded their entire monthly period experience in an activation dubbed #TheCycleDiaries – across every touchpoint, the brand tapped into trusted advisors and the cultural zeitgeist

The results

Midol had set ambitious goals for the relaunch of the brand, especially in light of the category's sluggish momentum. While the brand had experienced (very) modest 1.9% growth in 2019, driven primarily by incremental media investment and distribution gains, the relaunch would require breakthrough performance. New packaging, communications, and brand activation – and a minor increase in media investment – needed to drive interest and action among a younger consumer to unlock incremental growth.

The primary objective was increasing Household Penetration, proving that there was an expanded audience for Midol, and room for growth. The brand's HH Penetration was very low at 2.2pts (especially versus general analgesics penetration at 68.2pts), and the objective was set for a +0.3pt increase among menstrual treaters. Any movement in sales would be a key indicator that the new campaign was gaining traction and could deliver that goal.

The digital media investment plan was a major contributor to sales performance. In May-June, ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) was 24% higher, compared to a similar spend level in Jan-Feb – and 123% higher than the monthly average ROAS for 2019.

This project was a winner at The Drum Awards for Content 2021. Click here to find out which of The Drum Awards are currently open for entry.