While the convenience of panty-style sanitary shorts is widely recognized, their usage is still limited. Unicharm’s new product, “Sofy On-the-Go Change Shorts,” offered a revolutionary feature: the ability to change without having to remove one’s pants. This innovation directly addressed a common problem users faced when out and about. To further expand the already growing market for panty-style sanitary shorts, it was crucial to communicate the value of this product and capture the attention of a broader audience, including many who had never used such products before. The significant challenge was: how could we make people take notice of this new option?
To address this challenge, we decided against simply conveying the product’s functionality. Instead, we aimed to tell a “story” that the product enabled. The core idea was to leverage social media (SNS) as the starting point. Six months prior, a specific woman had posted online, wishing for a product that could be changed on the go. In response to her voice, Sofy’s official account released information about the new product by replying with the message, “Your wait is over—we made it!”
This reply elevated the new product announcement into an emotional narrative: “Sofy genuinely listened to the voice of one woman.” As a result, “Sofy On-the-Go Change Shorts” transformed into a social event that many people could empathize with and support. This organic post, created without any advertising, instantly captured people’s hearts, garnering approximately 37 million views, over 190,000 likes, and more than 41,000 reposts. Even before any TV commercials began, it successfully generated an unprecedented level of buzz in Unicharm’s history.
On SNS, a flood of praise erupted, with comments like “This is a godsend!” and “I’ve been waiting for this!” Furthermore, new values for the product, entirely unanticipated by the company, were discovered and articulated by users themselves, such as “I want to keep it in my disaster preparedness kit.” This excitement directly led to strong sales, contributing to the successful launch of the new product, rather than merely creating buzz.
