One of the biggest problems our team identified was the unrealistic way that many period products portray women’s menstrual cycles. “Periods aren’t all about white shorts, sunshine, and dancing,” was one comment from a campaign brainstorm. To account for this, we employed two main strategies. First, we put together an all female team to run the campaign and second, we engaged in a direct, honest, and humorous discussion about periods that would make our story more relatable to writers. We also identified an important conversation that was popular in the media at the time of the campaign. Endometriosis is a condition that can lead to especially painful menstrual cramps which had been discussed in the media and by influencers and celebrities such as Lena Dunham, so we targeted those individuals during our outreach.

Pre-launch: This was the most critical component of our outreach, laying the groundwork for a burst of coverage as the campaign launched. We created a humorous pitch with an irreverent tone and nod to web culture, that was designed to appeal to young female writers and digital publications.

“Periods Are Bloody Awful! Livia’s Here To Relieve Your Pain”

In addition, we included a humorous image, which you can see in the included PDF, that summed up our all female team’s collective experience with menstrual pain.

Launch: We sent out the Livia launch story under embargo 10 days before the campaign went live to additional top targets and we were able to secure an immediate, flurry of coverage when the campaign launched.

Campaign: As the campaign progressed, we followed up with key targets and sent targeted pitches to additional contacts, maintaining a steady drumbeat of coverage in top publications.

Amongst the very first outlets to cover was The Next Web, which posted a story with the following title: “This is the best wearable I have ever tried. Period.”

Media Outputs: We saw posts go up on major publications including: Buzzfeed, Mashable, The Next Web, Cosmopolitan, TeenVogue, HelloGiggles, Refinery29, Weight Watchers, Glamour, Huffington Post, Wired, and many others. In total, we received over 3000 posts that represented a potential readership of millions of views. The AVE of this campaign was estimated at $3,394,833.

Business Outcomes: Livia blew past its original crowdfunding target of $50,000 in less than a week and went on to raise $669,641 during the campaign and $958,950 more from pre-orders. All-in-all, Liva was backed and pre-ordered by more than 17,000 people, a huge sign of the pent up demand for a product of this nature.