Bodyform follows P&G with an emoji campaign to offer ‘practical solution’ to the taboo around periods

The campaign, which comes a day after Always launched its own emoji push, is about offering “practical solutions” to the problem, according to the brand’s marketing director Nicola Coronado.

Coronado said it is “fantastic” that both brands have united behind the insight that emojis are an important part of their target audience’s lives. There are, however, fundamental differences to the two campaigns.

She told Marketing Week: “The Always campaign does things very well and it’s clear that we have a universal insight. Ours is about practical solutions, while theirs seems to be about drawing attention to a need to be better represented, which we would absolutely support. But there’s no solution as of yet that’s been offered.”

The feminine hygiene brand will be submitting its petition to Unicode, the company responsible for the emoji keyboard, later this month to ask them to include its six new period emojis.

The campaign was developed following the insight that almost half (45%) of UK women and girls find it difficult to talk about their periods with friends and family. Meanwhile, four out of five UK women and girls find emojis a useful way to express their feelings.

Coronado explained: “Periods can be a topic of embarrassment for our target audience, which is predominantly young girls and women. It can create some anxiety.

“We know that emoji is the fastest growing language in the world and is something that girls absolutely use, which is how ‘femojis’ came about. From our research around the femojis, girls told us they do want to talk about periods, but simply don’t have the tools to do it.”

The six femojis include tongue-in-cheek icons to depict pads and periods as well as cramps, PMS, spots and bloating. The brand’s marketing director added that the emojis allow young girls and women to talk about periods in a “more frank way”.

While the thrust of the campaign is aimed at women and girls, Coronado also hopes men will get involved.

She said: “The beauty of this campaign is that it’s not closed. So far, a couple of men have signed our petition. The [emoji] language is beneficial for everybody. The moment you remove euphemisms, you start to break down taboos and the stigma.”

The campaign will run across multiple markets and be supported by multimedia promotional activity spanning PR, vlogger outreach and digital advertising. Bodyform will also be driving conversation on social media via Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #Femojis.