Challenge and Insights
A third of women over 35 experience bladder weakness, but incontinence remains taboo and products stigmatised.
People think of ‘adult nappies’: white, bulky and incompatible with looking and feeling good.
Introducing Silhouette from TENA: elegant, black, incontinence underwear. Silhouette launched in late 2019 as the first fashion product in the category and the first to look, feel and fit like real underwear. Women with occasional incontinence could for the first time not only match the colour of their underwear, but also rediscover their confidence.
TENA finally had the product that could challenge perceptions and break the taboo of incontinence.
Strategy
The key insight was a media one: the category has traditionally been about discreet targeting and initially, the campaign was planned for 1:1 channels. This, however, exacerbated the stigma by hiding the conversation. Instead, it would take a bold move to normalise incontinence and unlock growth.
So we moved it from a private performance campaign, to a hugely public one, owning famous OOH formats in the UKs’ busiest shopping destination. Bringing occasional incontinence out in the open through media, taking the stigma not just outside of the bedroom, but outside of the home altogether.
Implementation
Our TENA takeover included a 6 Sheet domination up and down Oxford Street as well as the Oxford Street Banner. Where shoppers would usually see stick-thin models in luxury clothes they saw real, 40-something women wearing TENA Silhouette, challenging their ideas about femininity and living with incontinence.
By including both large and small formats within proximity of each other, ensured that the communication was amplified. Working in parallel, TENA was able to takeover Oxford Street and align their underwear with its fashion ethos, as well as showcasing the stigma around incontinence and putting this in the forefront of shopper’s minds.
Results
Our bold move was unmissable.
There was a huge spike in traffic to the TENA website, delivering 13,000+ incremental visits, of which 85% had never visited the website before. This drove a +981% increase in sample requests totalling 3,210 on the day of launch, but most importantly delivered penetration: growing the overall bladder weakness category by 73% (Kantar), bringing new buyers in from Femcare.
This is where the media agency truly changed the face of the campaign, making something so intensely private, so public, it attracted huge press coverage. What was to be a small mail-out became a national phenomenon.
New website visits
Sampling requests
Bladder weakness category growth
