Period pain got you down? Take an AR selfie with your sanitary pad

Client: Unicharm (Sofy)

Agency: JWT

Market: China

Campaign scope:  Online video, mobile app, website

Details: The campaign aims to help Sofy connect with 18- to 24-year-old Chinese women and position the brand as fashionable and innovative.

Chinese consumers who purchase the 'Pocket Magic' (a new slim, pocket-sized sanitary pad) can use the corresponding app to scan a code on the product packaging and unlock a set of interactive animations of Sofy’s mascots, Su and Fei. The cute characters pop up in augmented reality to enhance the selfies taken by consumers, which can be shared with friends on Weibo or WeChat.

Women can also use the app's calendar tool to set up reminders about their menstrual cycle. The agency boasts that 280,000 app downloads took place in the first month after the campaign launch in August. Women who downloaded the app have used it, on average, more than 10 times, according to the agency.

No other brands in the feminine hygiene segment were using mobile to engage with consumers, so JWT saw an opportunity to reach out and establish a more intimate connection, said Eugene Chew, chief digital officer at JWT Shanghai. “Pads are something all women buy, but not something they usually take out and play with," he said, demonstrating a gift for understatement. "This is probably a first for the category.” The number of online brand mentions reportedly jumped 21 per cent to 5.74 million.

Press release quote: Takahiro Imagawa, director of feminine care business division at Unicharm: "We wanted a campaign that went beyond functional benefits, and added an emotional layer to deepen connection between consumers and the brand. When JWT Shanghai came up with the idea for the app, we knew it would make a real mark with young women.”

Comments: The nature of feminine hygiene products makes them necessities—low-involvement products whose purchase is driven largely by function. The augmented reality element is indeed a cool idea to differentiate and try to get women to bond with the brand. That said, the demo video, featuring the seriously overexposed Angelababy, is quite forced, with too many plastered smiles for our liking.

CREDITS:

Account:
-          Takashi Aoki
-          Joanna Zhao
-          Ray Zhu
-          Elena Xu

Planning:
-       Brian Ng
-       Tracy Song
-       Davy Chau

Creative:
-          Xiao Bao Sun
-          Amber Qian
-          Doris Du
-          Konige Wang
-          Ruru Tang
-          April Han

Production:
-          Eric Yu