Sky Media recently revealed WUKA’s advertising campaign as one of the five winners of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund initiative. The taboo-busting ad encourages women to ditch plastic-riddled disposable pads and tampons in favour of its sustainable period wear, with an honest depiction of real period stories, in an effort to normalise conversations around menstruation.
WUKA funded the campaign using the £250,000 media value earned from winning the Sky Zero Footprint Fund in 2022.
WUKA stands for Wake Up Kick Ass, a mindset which is encapsulated in the script – the most claim-heavy script the production company had ever seen.
After a gruelling six months of defending the creative with Clearcast – the advertising review body responsible for clearing TV adverts of potential misleading, harmful or offensive content – WUKA successfully upheld its realistic depiction of periods and its eco-friendly credentials, to bring its ad to life.
From conducting a low carbon shoot to depicting the true nature of periods with real bodies, real life situations and even realistic blood, WUKA is bringing sustainable period wear to the masses with the help of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund.
The panel of judges first viewed the 30” TV creative at the Sky Zero Footprint Fund Showcase event on December 7, 2022, where the ad was applauded for its very clear message and potential to positively impact both women’s health and the environment.
To learn more about this ground-breaking campaign, we spoke to Ruby Raut, CEO & Co-Founder at WUKA Period-Proof Underwear.
What was the brief?
The Sky Zero Footprint Fund is an annual £2 million competition created to help brands accelerate their sustainable initiatives and inspire behavioural change using the power and reach of TV advertising.
As an entirely reusable, carbon-neutral brand, WUKA jumped at the chance to enter and get our taboo-busting brand in front of millions and help champion the adoption of tangible steps towards a more sustainable future.
WUKA’s winning entry was Judged by a panel of industry experts with credentials in advertising, creativity and sustainability, including advertising legend Sir John Hegarty, Su-Mei Thompson (CEO of the Media Trust), Stephen Woodford (Chair of the Advertising Association), Fiona Ball (Group Director of Bigger Picture at Sky), Gideon Spanier (UK Editor in chief of Campaign), Karen Blackett (Country Manager at WPP & GroupM UK CEO), Juliet Davenport (Founder of Good Energy and Author of The Green Start-up) and Jo Fenn (Founder of AdGreen).
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
I discovered the competition on my way home from a work event one night and upon looking into it discovered that the deadline was that same day at 11.59pm. For the first stage, I had to outline the reasons why I felt WUKA should win.
I had a million reasons but we eventually decided to flip the script with an alternative version of the “first period talk” Instead of a mum talking to her daughter, we wanted to show a kick ass teen, empowered having switched to WUKA period pants, educating her mum about periods instead.
The next stage was being invited to pitch to a live judging panel. Despite testing positive for covid the day of the pitch and having to deliver this virtually, I coughed and spluttered my way through. After the pitch, the floor opened but the room was silent.
All I could hear was the judges talking to one another about their own experiences of periods - I guess we had succeeded in achieving our goal of getting people talking!
Based on the strength of our submission, imagination and creativity expressed throughout, we were subsequently selected as a Top 5 winner guaranteed £250,000 in media spend and we began to bring our taboo-busting ad to life ready for broadcasting.
What was the process behind ideating the concept?
The final creative ended up being quite different to the original pitch following a lot of feedback from the judges, agencies and most importantly our customers who we involved throughout the process.
At times, it was challenging to balance all the differing opinions but in the end, we kept going back to our brand mission: to smash taboos and empower everyone who bleeds to have a better, more sustainable period.
What we realised quite early on was that being a first mover to the market in a relatively new category (we were the first brand to launch period pants into the UK in 2017), our creative had to work much harder than others, educating as well as motivating people to change deeply entrenched habits and behaviours.
What was the production process like?
A rollercoaster and not one we would do again in a hurry! The topic of periods is messy (literally!) and to make matters worse, we didn’t make it easy for ourselves by writing a script that was rife with bold claims- from our zero-waste credentials to how comfy and leak-proof our pants are. Throughout every submission we had to be prepared for our air date to be pushed back but also for the final copy to change.
However, we were confident in our product and knew we could defend every single one so we persisted and after almost 6 months in review with Clearcast, we finally gained approval in April ready to air on April 21st.
What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?
Budget! As a small bootstrapped startup, we didn’t have the luxury of access to big creative agencies to explore our ideas with or to plan the shoot. We therefore did it all in house - from the storyboarding, to script writing and planning ahead of shoot day.
We found a small two-person production team who shared our vision and together we hustled to keep our internal costs and carbon footprint down with budget and eco-friendly alternatives to mainstream production processes.
We also observed guidance from the Advertising Association’s AdGreen standards- something we found fascinating as we didn’t realise initially how unsustainable shoots can be!
What kit/tools/software were used to create the project?
The whole TVC was shot on Blackmagic Design cameras using mostly Aputure and Nanlite lighting/fixtures and the entire edit was handled inside Davinci Resolve (editing, vfx, colour, sound mix).
What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?
As a sustainable brand that sells reusable products only- we had a drama midway through filming a scene in the script that brings to life the voiceover “ditch the pads and tampons”.
Despite all our preparation for the shoot, we’d forgotten to pack any pads and tampons and so we had to ask all the crew to empty their handbags to find a tampon - luckily we found one!
What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?
The main message is that WUKA loves periods In every form- the sneezy flows, trickly flows, even the gushing flows! Periods are normal and nothing to be ashamed of - our ad is bold and doesn’t hold back from the very real and sometimes messy reality of periods with period clots in full view.
For so long, we have been conditioned to believe that periods are not a topic for public discussion which is so damaging for self-esteem but also sets us back in our mission to achieve gender equality in society today.
How long did it take from inception to delivery?
9 months (July 2022- April 2023)
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
Periods - unsurprisingly - stir mixed emotions in people and we know this ad won’t necessarily be liked by everyone which is fine. However, we hope it encourages people of all ages, male and female, to think about and hopefully talk about periods more openly- whether it’s parents with children, couples in relationships, friends or even colleagues.
Nearly 50% of the global population will experience periods for up to 40 years of their life and despite this period products have not evolved beyond wings and strings for decades. We want women and girls to know that they have choices when it comes to their body and that they don’t have to compromise on comfort or convenience when searching for zero-waste alternatives.
We hope that WUKA as a brand will become synonymous with the period pant category and as such our brand awareness will increase with this new media channel in our marketing mix. As a small business, these opportunities are few and far between so this TV campaign is a major milestone for us.
Credit list for the work?
Creative concept - WUKA
Production - Route Nine Productions
