How HelloFlo aims to educate women and girls with a laugh

Get honest, in-depth coverage of media, marketing and TV, delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for the Digiday Daily Newsletter here.

Almost a year after its entree into the feminine-product market with a gut-busting video about a Napoleonic young girl called “The Camp Gyno,” HelloFlo is back with another ad called “First Moon Party.” In this one, a different girl lies about getting her first period, and hilarity ensues.

The video has garnered more than 2 million views in a day, but HelloFlo is hoping for more than laughs this time around.

The company is expanding its mission to become a resource for educational information on women’s health through branded content that teaches women about their bodies. True to brand form, the copy will include words like “blood” and “vagina” instead of the flowery, ambiguous language that has dominated discussions of women’s health in the past.

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 5.56.02 PM

If you’re not familiar with HelloFlo, its main product is a subscription service that each month sends customers a box of products used during a woman’s period: Tampons, pads, liners and the like — all specific to the customer based on her “flo” (and yes, that’s what they call it).

HelloFlo has just added “First Period” and “Postpartum” care packages, which include things like tampons, liners and nursing pads, as well as fun little extras like hair ties and candy. But while the brand has been known for delivering women the equipment they need during their periods, now HelloFlo is moving beyond the boxes into education, an arena that CEO and founder Naama Bloom says is in dire need of “euphemism-free talk.”

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 5.28.03 PM

“The educational expansion comes in response to requests from educators, women’s health groups and parents for educational material that speaks honestly about the subject,” Bloom told Digiday.

Toward that end, HelloFly is now developing a downloadable lesson plan and has plans for Vine-length videos, too. Currently, visitors to HelloFlo.com can read up on women’s health topics from menopause to postpartum care.

It’s a marketing approach that puts women’s health first and bets that education might be a path to purchase.

https://digiday.com/?p=78905

More in Marketing

Women’s sports marketing boom ‘huge up and coming opportunity,’ spurs new agency services

Women’s sports are having a moment. Brands, media companies and agencies are looking to get in on the action.

Creators still turning down work as the Hollywood SAG-AFTRA strike continues

The Hollywood strikes were supposed to be a game changer for many of them, but the situation hasn’t quite lived up to the hype.

Agencies move on from creating content for specific platforms to focus on short-form video

Given the rise of short-form video, agencies that focus on the format, rather than specific platform expertise, will reap the rewards.