When we launched our campaign #bloodnormal in October 2017, we knew we would get some hateful reactions. But you don’t break taboos without triggering visceral negativity. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a taboo. This case study will tell you the story of how the Bodyform/Libresse (Essity) marketing team managed to galvanise their entire company to think and act more boldly than it could ever have imagined doing in order to bring to life its purpose and make a meaningful difference to its consumers: Women. It will explain how a great purpose would have meant nothing without the courage and tenacity of a small group of committed people to actively tackle category conventions, break societal taboos, keep challenging attitudes inside and outside the company, and push relentlessly against media bans to establish a new standard in the category, and a new paradigm for women. And it will provide some lessons we’ve learned along the way, proving why it is worth every fight to truly act purposefully.

This paper is about breaking conventions. The conventions of the agency model, the conventions of branding and now the conventions of effectiveness case studies. This was not just an advertising campaign, but an idea that changed everything from production techniques to retailer relationships and won awards for everything from packaging design to activation events.  But increasingly, this is what truly transformative communication ideas need to do.  To reach beyond the confines of advertising and influence every aspect of a business.  So we won't be excluding things like distribution changes from our results. Instead, we will prove that these impressive business changes were driven directly by our advertising idea. Skittles have built a beloved brand on the back of consistent investment in distinctive TV advertising. However, by 2015, Skittles UK were facing two key challenges that couldn't be tackled by their conventional marketing approach.