#LeaksHappen

The peeing billboard

What did we want to do?

Elvie’s research revealed 84% of women experience urinary leaks, yet almost two-thirds (59%) do nothing to look after or improve pelvic floor health.

Incontinence is still a huge taboo and two-fifths of women (43%) said shame surrounding the issue stops them from seeking help.

So Elvie challenged us to deliver a campaign which busts taboos around incontinence and shows it is an issue impacting women of all ages. So how did we get to a peeing billboard? 

Two weeks before launch, TikTok banned a video published on Elvie’s profile showing incontinence.

WHAT DID WE DO?

Introducing #LeaksHappen. We kicked off with a world-first partnership. Teaming up with Wales women’s national rugby union team (WRU) ahead of the Six Nations, we worked closely with the team’s physiotherapist, Jo Perkins, to incorporate Elvie Trainer into their training programme.

Captain, Siwan Lillicrap and player, Kerin Lake, shared personal anecdotes about how incontinence impacts the team physically and psychologically, and why Elvie Trainer’s biofeedback technology is so integral to tackling the issue.

But we were only just getting started… Next, we created a giant, “peeing” billboard to confront the British public with the reality of incontinence. Our billboard star was 28-year-old Megan – a real-life incontinence sufferer and fitness lover – who was featured mid-squat and mid-leak on a 20-foot-high billboard. For one week, “pee” trickled out of the peeing billboard.

WHAT HAPPENED?

We filled social media with footage of our peeing billboard to challenge censorship of the issue head on. And we worked with London’s best PT, Nesrine Dally, to provide expert advice on strengthening the pelvic floor to improve incontinence and show how Elvie Trainer helps.

Influencers including Tova Leigh, Clare Bourne and Bumps and Burpees engaged with the campaign organically, sharing Elvie’s peeing billboard content and landing the message ‘#LeaksHappen, but they don’t have to’.

We achieved 71 pieces of coverage, including 23 national and international hits, in titles such as Mail Online, The Telegraph, Mirror, Metro, New York Post, The Guardian, Glamour and The Cut. Our peeing billboard drove a 93.5% increase in conversation around incontinence across social media. Contentious conversations were sparked, creating an opportunity to bust taboos, educate and position Elvie Trainer as a solution 

Press coverage was shared over 600 times on social media. And our video was viewed over 1 million times. Finally we saw a 109% uplift in Google searches for “Elvie” during our peeing billboard launch week.

Elvie was seen as a brand prepared to tackle the taboo of incontinence.

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?

#LeaksHappen successfully delivered against every brand activism objective. We busted taboos and raised awareness of incontinence impacting women of all ages and stages by working with real women and sports stars who are the epitome of health, to speak openly about the issue and show it’s nothing to be ashamed of. All social, PR and influencer content landed the message that incontinence is solvable and highlighted Elvie Trainer as an integral tool for improving pelvic floor health and symptoms of incontinence.