Bodyform aims to empower women with ‘Live Fearless’ campaign

FMCG company SCA Hygiene is launching a £4.5m marketing push for its Bodyform feminine hygiene brand that will focus on female empowerment as it looks to create an emotional connection with consumers and generate a renewed sense of buzz around the brand.

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Launching at the end of September, the campaign introduces a new strapline “Live Fearless” that will run across TV, print, online and in-store. A TV campaign, created by BBDO, has a voiceover of a woman from the 1950s warning a young girl to stay at home while she is on her period, while footage shows women performing daring feats.
 
The ad ends with a voice saying “Times have changed” and encouraging viewers to “Say yes and live fearlessly”.
 


The campaign promotes a new range of Bodyform Ultra products that have glue all the way round the packaging and allow women to “roll, press, go”. The launch is in response to consumer frustration over how to dispose of sanitary products while they’re out and about.
 


An accompanying print campaign will go into further details on the product while a social push will encourage women to share their experiences of living fearlessly.
 


Nicola Coronado, marketing director for SCA Hygiene, admits female empowerment is a not a new idea for the feminine hygiene market, citing Bodyform’s “Whoah” campaign from the 1980s which showed women doing activities including skydiving. Procter & Gamble’s Always brand also launched its own take on the concept earlier this year with its #Likeagirl campaign.


Coronado tells Marketing Week the new campaign is a way to refresh the concept for current consumers.
 


“Ideally we want to create a platform where women can inspire each other to live fearlessly and confidently. We have great products that people can trust and be confident in but we also want to introduce a way to engage with consumers and empower them to talk about the things that give them confidence,” says Coronado.
 


While Bodyform has been a “quiet brand” over the last few years, according to Coronado, it has experienced steady sales growth and seen its market share increase to 13 per cent. However Coronado says SCA is “not happy” with that market share and hopes the new campaign, along with revamped packaging and new innovations, can increase consumer engagement with the brand and boost its sales and market share still further.
 


The TV ad also shows footage of SCA Hygiene’s all-female sailing crew, who are taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race, a nine-month long race typically dominated by male crews. Ben Heppenstall, communications manager for SCA in the UK and Ireland, says this is the first time a crew made up entirely of women has taken part in the race as an “A” team in with a chance of winning.
 


The sponsorship makes sense, he says, because 80 per cent of SCA Hygiene’s products are bought by women. SCA is also making a wider push to promote its FMCG brands, which include Tena, Plenty and Cushelle, and increase its market share in the categories where it operates through product innovation, revamped packaging and a pickup in marketing investment, which will hit £30m this year.
 


“SCA is on a journey of change literally and figuratively to emerge onto an FMCG platform. We needed a vehicle to help reinforce our message around the world and what better vehicle to do that than to literally put SCA and its consumers brands on a boat and sail it around the world with 11 women who represent your brand values,” he says.
 


Beyond Bodyform, SCA is also plotting new products for its TENA range including a new line suitable for wearing at night. Coronado says that, along with Bodyform, TENA is aimed at helping women and men feel secure and confident, with that idea supported by a new #Seizetheday campaign on social media, encouraging people to live more confidently every day.
 


SCA has also put £3.5m into toilet tissue brand Cushelle with a packaging redesign that “heroes” the Cushelle koala. Velvet will get a £6m marketing investment while Plenty is looking to expand beyond its use in the kitchen to the garage and bathroom with a new Dura Cloth product and TV campaign that will ask consumers to share how they use Plenty products.

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