At last year’s B&T Awards, Howatson+Company left with a slew of trophies, including three for ‘I’m Dying Inside’ a TV-quality series of short films created to sell period underwear to an audience that wasn’t aware of the brand.
The resulting films were very special indeed and saw the agency leave with the trophies for the Best Content Marketing Strategy, Best Media Campaign and Best Use of Social Media awards.
But why did it work? We sat down with Gavin Chimes, Howatson+Co’s chief creative officer, to find out.
“Modibodi had a fundamental challenge,” he said. It was competing in a crowded market with low awareness among 18- 25-year-olds.
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Not only is that “resistant” to traditional forms of advertising, according to Chimes, the media they were interacting with – defined by scrolling and swiping – meant they would “scroll right past” anything that didn’t scratch their itch for good content. These factors, in Chimes’ mind, necessitated a radical but necessary approach.
“The brilliant thing about Modibodi was they got it, making the sign-off process remarkably smooth,” Chimes said.
“They understood we needed to make authentic entertainment first and figure out how to weave the brand in naturally. No shoehorning, no forced product shots. Their in-house team were absolute legends and encouraged us to push boundaries as much as possible. This trust between agency, client and production was crucial,” he added.
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So how did the ideas come to life? Howatson+Company and Modibodi started with a simple truth: being a young person is already overwhelming with heartbreak, anxiety, moving out, coming out, the climate crisis and so on.
“Then your period shows up and it can feel like the end of the world. This became our creative springboard,” said Chimes.
“Instead of making ads, we decided to make a binge-worthy series for TikTok. But to do it right, we had to be authentic. Both the client and our production partners at Finch were fully committed to this. We assembled a Gen Z team of creators, including a director (Arundati Thandur), writers and female/non-binary actors – then workshopped the scripts together, weaving in real period stories from the crew. Everything was written by young people who get periods, for young people who get periods,” he continued.
Each episode was developed as a screenplay, then storyboarded as 9:16 frames. Even a special rig was set up to shoot it that way. The whole series was filmed over two days, in one location.
“We also had a roving second unit crew, creating organic TikTok content on set, which was aired alongside the series. This proved essential in helping drive views of our episodes,” said Chimes.
But did it actually sell more stuff? Yes, and resoundingly so, according to Chimes, who described the results as “excellent”.
The series of films had 12 million views in a month, brand engagement increased 91.4 per cent, and Modibodi’s website traffic jumped 44 per cent.
“Sales up 75 per cent. This last one stands out the most. It proves that entertainment-led content can drive serious commercial results,” said Chimes.
“The campaign reset expectations for what’s possible when brands stop acting like brands and start acting like content creators. For us at Howatson+Company, it’s become a reference point for doing Gen Z marketing without being cringe. We learnt a lot from it,” he said.
But why did Howatson+Company enter it into the B&T Awards?
“We entered because we knew we’d done something unique. This wasn’t just another period care campaign. While the period care category has done some exceptional work in the last few years, it wasn’t made for younger audiences,” said Chimes.
“Winning felt like validation that the industry is ready to reward brave work. When you can make content about periods that people binge-watch for entertainment, you know you’ve cracked something special.”
We wholeheartedly agree. Enter the B&T Awards for your validation, now!
