An Advertising Campaign Critique
1.0 Campaign Brief
The new campaign by Kimberly-Clark’s U by Kotex brand to promote their
new range of pads was launched on 12th August 2012 via Shift, a strategic
marketing agency. The campaign is entitled ‘Leakage Freakage’ and specifically
designed to promote the new U by Kotex Ultrathins pads with anti-leak side
guards and increased absorbent core. Television commercials, print and digital
advertising support the campaign. Below is the link to Shift’s website showcasing
their two TVCs and ‘official leakage Freakage survival guide’.
http://www.shift.com.au/work_breaking.html
The first commercial in the campaign is for new ultrathins pad range and
the second is for tampons, both under the theme of ‘forget the rules’. The
commercials show some unwritten rules girls follow during their period to avoid
embarrassment in case of leakage. It explains then that girls can forget these
rules if they use U by kotex pads with anti-lead side guards or tampons with an
additional blue absorbent layer at the base.
More about this campaign can be found on the Kimberly-clark website at
http://www.kimberly-clark.com.au/en/news/2012/newsbox/no-more%E2%80%98leakage-freakage%E2%80%99-with-u-by-kotex%C2%AE/
2.0 Target audience
It is apparent from the product itself that the target audience is women.
The target market will particularly be females who have menstrual cycles
excluding those in the age group that are quite young or old or who are pregnant.
The representatives of the targeted consumers in the ads are young,
fashionable, fun and have edgy personality, typical of those in the ads for
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women’s hygiene products. Kotex has continued with its advertising strategy to
break away from usual tampons and pads ads by showing the real scenarios
instead of women wearing white unbelievably happy during their periods.
According to a social advocacy website change.org (Freedman, 2011),
broadcasting networks have been uncomfortable with the change in Kotex’s
approach to marketing and censored ads in the previous campaigns by Kotex for
not using the appropriate euphemisms for tampons and vagina.
In this ‘leakage freakage’ campaign, however, Kotex has successfully
avoided this rather feminist discussion surrounding the female hygiene products
ads, while at the same time, brings a refreshing approach to advertising by
showcasing the real deal that women encounter. Whether it is a good tactic or
icky one, the sex and gender in advertising will be discussed further in the
section 6.0 of this critique.
3.0 Advertising strategy and message
3.1 The creative strategy
The creative strategy adopted by U by Kotex in the campaign
accomplishes three common message objectives: perception, transformation and
behavior (Wells et al., 2011). The TV commercials have certainly created
attention and awareness of the brand and the product. It has ended up as one of
the best ads on www.bestadsontv.com. The campaign is deemed to be effective
as that it ensures memorability by using clever phrases such as ‘leakage
freakage’ and ‘forget the rules’. The TVCs has clear key visuals and colors. The
scenarios vary greatly so that it has the ‘stopping power’ to capture attention and
shows originality. Recognition and recall is established since the message is
relatable and refreshing to the target market. Transformation of the brand is
achieved by breaking away from usual pads and tampons ads and bringing ‘real
talk’, therefore, establishing an association of U by Kotex with innovative and
consumer focused brand. The campaign is to promote their new range of pads
with anti-leak side guards and tampons with increased blue absorbent core. The
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message in the ad directly relates to the new products, therefore, likely to
stimulate trial purchase.
The message campaign also drives cognition in that it succeeded in
identifying the product attributes as point of differentiation from the competitions.
In this case, the anti-leak side guards and the additional blue absorbent layer
was mentioned and made more fun and less informational message by
preceding the product features with the unique animation style and live action by
the models in the ads.
3.2 The consumer insight
In terms of the consumer insight, the campaign has covered the
consumers’ thinking quite effectively. The campaign features the attributes of the
products successfully in regards to the interests of consumers (Wells et al.,
2011). The relevant factor of why a consumer would care about the product’s
new additional features was delivered by showcasing the leakage scenarios.
4.0 Execution
4.1 The quality of performance
Overall, the campaign performed well and well received by the
consumers. The campaign has executed the communication effectively in that it
gets attention, provides information and entertainment (Wells et al., 2011).
According to the communication model, external noise and internal noise is
inevitable (ibid.) and the campaign has avoided some of them in the way it can.
External noise such as bad TV reception or clutter from the surrounding
environments is avoided by the additional support with print and online content.
The campaign steers away from internal noise such as the consumers’
information processing abilities and purchase history by relying on its colorful
designs and packaging as well as the live animation in the commercials, thereby,
attracting more attention to the products in its usual realm of sales in Coles and
Woolworths.
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4.2 The quality of technical production
Both 30 seconds Television commercials are produced by Photoplay
Films (http://www.photoplayfilms.com.au) and the print is named appropriately
‘how to survive leakage freakage’ featuring the scenarios shown in the ads,
thereby showing consistency in the message in all medium. There are three rules
in each ad that girls can break by using U by Kotex, and even though, it’s greatly
exaggerated, the details are thoroughly thought out. The writing is cleverly done
to describe each scenario in few words supported by the visuals. The print
version has been drawn up as cartoons to provide the same message and to
compensate for the lack of animations.
The settings of the scenarios are filled with fun animation and colorful
themes and wardrobe choices to keep up the U by Kotex brand image of fun and
edgy personality. The acting in the commercials and the way the product is
depicted shows the light tone in the campaign despite the unpleasant topic of
leakage. The technical production in overall has reflected the creative strategy
prepared for the campaign. However, the animation and colorfulness of the
scenarios may have served as the noise in delivering the message as well. The
commercials are packed with fun and quirky themes that there is much going on
in a 30 second message.
5.0 Competitions
There are few brands in Australian market for feminine hygiene products
compared to other countries. Some competitors in the market are Stayfree,
Poise, Carefree, Wonder and Libra. The major competition for U by Kotex is
Libra since Libra also has active marketing campaigns and is the market leader
in the product category. Libra invisible pads campaign in 2010 entitled “Wonder
Man” has by far the most successful ad by bringing in a man in a pad commercial
(http://www.adnews.com.au/campaign/libra-invisible-super-hero). The message
in the ad was subtle by word play of ‘invisible’ and did not particularly make use
of any consumer insight. The ad was successful mostly for its creativity and it’s
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surprising approach to advertising for feminine products. Their recent ad in
September
2012
entitled
“Libra
Invisibles:
Boot
(http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/47713/Libra-Invisibles-Boot-Camp)
Camp”
has
also
achieved similar publicity and well received by the consumers. The tactic was
similar in that the promotion of the product was done by the creativity in the ad,
thereby, relying on consumers to pass messages about the products. The ad
achieved popularity on tapping on the seemingly unlikely scenario of women
perving on men. It shows a surprising end and induces laughter out of viewers.
Hence, the brand Libra is indirectly associated with fun and refreshing image in
consumers’ mind.
For a FMCG product, consumers typically do not pay much attention and
do not want to spend much time choosing the brand. It is essential therefore to
be the first brand in consumers’ mind. The packaging is important and the
commercials will invoke trials and the likely purchase when the products perform.
When compared between Libra campaign and U by Kotex campaign, even
though U by Kotex campaign paid more attention to the consumer insight and
have a more relatable intersection between the features of the brand and
consumers interest, Libra campaign is deemed to be more successful since its
message is subtle and delivers more creativity to create viral marketing factor.
6.0 Sex and Gender Discussion
U by Kotex campaigns have been challenging the way feminine hygiene
products are advertised before and even though it has gained popularity and
response rates, they have much controversy surrounding the message as well.
The norm in advertising is that women on their period are happy and ads tend to
avoid things associated with periods. Menstruation has been treated as
something embarrassing and disgusting and that woman should be ashamed
during their period. In the appropriately titled article “Kimberly-Clark: Can We
Talk … About Vaginal Myths?” (Neff 2013), it features the brand’s effort to create
an honest conversation about feminine care and at the same time creating an
emotional bond with its new customers of girls aged between 14-22.
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In the ‘Leakage Freakage’ campaign, even though typical notion of girls
uncomfortable during their periods is used, the ads visualised the scenarios that
would usually be avoided for broadcasting. The campaign strategy is to break
away from the cycle of avoiding the ‘real talk’ of periods in ads; however, it is
interesting to see how the commercials still utilised the exaggerated commercial
reality of femininity by having acts of embarrassment from having periods. For
example, in the second TV spot, in rule 2 and rule 3, it shows that the females
were afraid of men finding out about their periods by having men passed by while
women tried uncomfortably to hide. Unlike their competitor carefree, U by Kotex
has brought up the equality issue more subtly. Carefree has used the word
‘vagina’ in one of its ads and created much noise and feedback from both men
and women (Horton, 2012).
Link:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AsvkAOkdc&feature=player_embedded)
Another competitor, Femfresh, on the other hand, has received unwanted
feedback from viewers for referring to the female body part as ‘la la’, ‘froo froo’
and other code words to avoid using the v-word. The leakage Freakage
campaign is clever in the fact that it does not challenge the norm so much that it
upsets the conservatives and the like but at the same time, delivering a more
“real” commercial to connect with consumers.
7.0 Strengths
One of the main reasons why the campaign is successful is that it gets up
close and personal, which is the number one rule for effective marketing in this
new era of marketing (Grant, 2007). The campaign stepped into the sphere of
intimacy and became one of the consumers. The commercials cultivate
authenticity by showing insightful scenarios that women can relate to and
uncomfortable moments that they experience (ibid.). The campaign is creative
and at the same time strategic to continue and transform the brand image as
understanding the real needs for users. It offers freshness in its message and
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does not stray too far from the usual commercial realm for sanitary products,
thereby, avoiding the cases like carefree and Femfresh.
When evaluating the branding achieved by the campaign (Priday, 2013),
the campaign has showed clarity in that U by Kotex has observed the needs of
consumers and what it is the consumers might encounter. This campaign has
shown consistency with previous campaigns for U by Kotex ‘U know what works’
under the theme of understanding the consumers. By strongly linking the
features of the products and the message, the campaign is to boost the
consumers’ confidence in the brand.
8.0 Weaknesses
A weakness is that the ads have too much going on in 30 seconds.
Although the animations add liveliness, when combined with bright colors and
exaggerated actions, the ad itself creates the noise for consumers in decoding
the message.
9.0 Recommendations
The campaign should further support the idea of Freakage Leakage with
more online content and print in magazines etc. to get more exposure to target
market. It could also learn from Libra in creating the viral marketing factor by
challenging the norm in a fun way. The light tone in the campaign should be
maintained, as even though the message is true and supports liberation of
women, the ad should entertain the crowd in general.
References
Freedman, 2011, ‘And on the third day of my period, I just want to dance’,
MamaMia,
Australia,
viewed
9th
May
2013,
<
http://www.mamamia.com.au/health-wellbeing/and-on-the-third-day-of-myperiod-i-just-want-to-dance/>
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Grant, J. (2007) The New Marketing Manifesto: 12 Rules for Building Successful
Brands in 21st Century. London: Texere. Pages 21-30, 186-189.
Horton, 2012, ‘The ad that dared to use the V-word’, The Sydney Morning
Herald,
22nd
July,
viewed
9th
May
2012,
<
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-ad-that-dared-to-use-the-vword20120721-22gua.html >
Neff, 2013, ‘Kimberly-Clark: Can We Talk … About Vaginal Myths?’,
AdvertisingAge,
4th
January,
viewed
9th
May
2013,
<
http://adage.com/article/news/kimberly-clark-u-kotex-ad-campaign-dispelsvaginal-myths/238989/ >
Priday, P. 2013, Advertising: Creative Principles (MKTG3121), at the University
of
Sydney,
Sydney,
27
March,
viewed
9th
May
2013,
<
https://blackboard.econ.usyd.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-626606-dt-contentrid147816_2/courses/MKTG3121_SEM1_2013/130327%20%234%20The%
20role%20of%20creativity%20%26%20brand%20building.pdf>
Wells, Spence-Stone, Crawford, Moriarty, Mitchell, (2011), Advertising: Principles
and Practice, Sydney: Pearson. Chapter 7, pp 195-216.
Wells, Spence-Stone, Crawford, Moriarty, Mitchell, (2011), Advertising: Principles
and Practice, Sydney: Pearson. Chapter 12, pp 370-383.
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