April 2, 2012

Kotex's awesome Pinterest campaign

Erin Dostal

March 30, 2012

 

:Kotex — yes, the tampon company — launched a super innovative campaign on Pinterest that was anything but awkward or hush-hush. Actually, it was really awesome. 

Here's how it worked: The company targeted 50 influential women and analyzed them based on their Pinterest boards — shoes, bikes, photos, wedding dresses, crafts and all. Kotex made them a gift box based on their interests. To get the box, all the lucky ladies had to do was re-pin their gift. Kotex then mailed them the box, completing the buzz-worthy cycle.
And all of it was meant to celebrate Women's Inspiration Day. How's that for knowing your audience?
The campaign was a success. The audience was targeted, and Kotex clearly knew not only how to reach them, but how to speak to them. The company's marketers collected the right information from these women to make them happy — not creep them out for snooping their sites — and surprised and delighted them. Besides, it created inherent buzz through its sheer innovation and it claims to be the first-ever Pinterest marketing campaign. There's even a YouTube video where customers can learn more, complete with sappy music, lots of hot pink and snappy graphics.
In total, the campaign launched 2,284 interactions and 694,853 impressions online. Not bad at all considering that the company only reached out to 50 women directly.
For a company who's slogan on their website is “your period is as unique as you are,” this seems all-too fitting. Brand consistency. Boom.
So, Kotex, I will no longer think of you as just a tampon company. And that seems pretty amazing on its own.

My Comments:  My first reaction upon reading this article was Finally! Pinterest took off with such a boom that even I, as a young person in Generation Y, could barely keep up! Facebook and Twitter have become so main stream that obviously ads are going to be all over them. Finally a company has decided to take advantage of the amount of people on Pinterest and advertise to them. It's no surprise that the first product is a feminine product considering most of the people on Pitnerest are women.