Grand LIA
Health & Wellness-Craft

Women+ are too-often unprepared, dismissed, told IT’S JUST A PERIOD’. This film said: it’s NEVER JUST A PERIOD.

Through deep craft, solidarity and humour––a visual feast, reflecting the chaos of periods, giving them the craft they deserve, the attention they deserve but never get––we represented the truth of our period experiences, dramatising how it feels to spend our lives caught off-guard: the lack of knowledge, the contrast between what we’re told and what we experience, our 300,000-year-old sigh, the universal, cosmic exasperation of it all.

You should outline why this piece of work was created for this particular brand, in this market, at this particular moment in time, with all of the cultural and market conditions. 250 word limit.

We conducted several rounds of global research among 10,000 participants and across 10 countries, and found that women+ still feel totally unprepared for a life inside their bodies. 6 out of 10 felt unprepared for their periods and wish they’d been taught more about them throughout their lives.

This struck us as cosmically absurd, and made us both sad and mad. In 2024, how was it possible that the majority of women+ and girls+ still felt misunderstood, and unable to understand themselves?

A bit about the brand: Libresse was the first brand to show red blood and start normalising periods with #Bloodnormal in 2017. It put Libresse on the map culturally, and in 7 years, propelled it from #6 to #4 globally, from a €600m to a €1bn brand.

The cultural influence of Libresse over the last 7 years has been such that all the other brands, old and new, have been following suit, replicating the work. This drastic change in the category’s representation of periods was always part of the plan to normalise periods so women+ can ‘Live Fearless’ - Libresse’s brand platform.

Never Just A Period is about the cosmic absurdity of being constantly destabalised by your own body. The drama, the emotional see-saw, the 300000-year-old sigh of exasperation, the groans & gasps across history, the WTFness of womanhood.

In a culture that dismisses & minimises our period experiences, and denies us the knowledge we need to navigate them, the campaign resonated––with thousands of social media responses like “There is nothing more beautiful than making normal what is normal.”––driving renewed success for Libresse.

Business Objective success: Despite being significantly outspent, Essity’s femcare business is growing faster than category giants.

Communications Objective success: Tracking in two key market launches showed that brand perceptions have improved on fundamental measures such as ‘Is a brave brand that breaks taboos’ and ‘Is a brand that impacts society positively’ by 38%,14% and 22%, 3.5% respectively.

Launching across 36 countries, our campaign made everyone reflect on their attitudes, experiences, lack of knowledge and preparation.

There was an outpouring on social. 41% of #NeverJustAPeriod comments expressed gratitude. Comments like “I cried... it’s a deep feeling to be acknowledged. Thank you” reflected how understood women+ felt after seeing our campaign.

Proving we truly understand periods paid off: 67% of women+ who saw the campaign said they were now much more likely to buy Libresse.

Despite being significantly outspent, Essity’s femcare business is now worth over €1bn, growing +6.5%, ahead of P&G (+5.0%) and Kimberly-Clark (+5.8%), achieving the Business Objective.

We met our Communications Objective: globally, Libresse is now more strongly associated with ‘open and honest’ conversations about periods. In key launch markets, brand perception soared—seen as a ‘brave brand that breaks taboos’ (UK +38%, Sweden +14%) and ‘impacts society positively’ (UK +22%, Sweden +3.5%).