Discover how a content idea, created to battle the lack of information and personal support around menopause, led to almost 3,000 people taking a special bus around Britain.
This mobile safe space for one-on-one menopause conversations, resulted in record-breaking 5,500 calls in only an hour, and a significant boost in traffic to Boots' menopause resources.
Meet Martin… someone experienced in supporting loved-ones coping with symptoms of menopause, and eager to learn as much as possible.
Yet he quickly found that whilst menopause was becoming less of a taboo, there was a void when it came to easily available information.
Martin happens to be Editor of ITV’s This Morning, and decided to do something about it. He would bring menopause to the foreground of the show, to raise awareness, improve understanding and directly help his viewers. Following a call with ITV’s sales team, Boots agreed to invest its expertise and talent into the project.
Menopause is not a generic ‘condition’: it’s always a deeply personal experience, with varying symptoms, phases and intensity.
And unfortunately, not enough women seek medical support (or even know where to start).
So, if women didn’t always know where to turn, then we would take the support to them.
And we’d help men, like Martin, wanting to know how to support partners, daughters and mums.
Together with Boots, we would send a joint-branded bus across the UK, to act as a drop-in space for one-on-one menopause conversations.
We would also offer medical insight, and beauty and nutritional inspiration to encourage our audience, all amplified through editorial segments in This Morning and further social content.
This was an at-cost partnership at less than £50k, with Boots funding the cost of wrapping the bus as well as providing advisors for the tour.
For two weeks, in July and November 2022, we took the bus on the road, aiming to cover as much of the UK as possible, with 6 destinations from Southend to Liverpool. We invited locals to hop on board enroute, to spend time with our expert teams.
On screen, Boots became the sponsor of our special menopause in-show segments, with 10” branded idents, whilst Boots experts appeared live on location during the segment, further cementing the partnership.
As we checked in with the bus, pharmacists gave further advice on This Morning and Boots social channels; No7 Beauty Advisors shared beauty advice; celebrity chef Lisa Snowden delivered cooking inspiration.
We made a special stop at Boots’ HQ for some special staff engagement. Boots saw their biggest ever turnout for a staff event.
The project also helped amplify Boots’ other menopause activity, including the Menopause Monologue series featuring Gabby Logan, Shappi Khorsandi and Loose Women’s Andrea Mclean, and its Taboo Talks podcast.
The Results
It was all about reaching out and - as an at-cost partnership - it’s been a model of earned media:
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2,000 people personally visited the bus in July, with 700 more in November, and 500 in Manchester alone!
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This Morning received its highest volume of calls of any previous topic, with over 5,500 in the first hour of launch
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4,000 extra customers as a 187% lift in traffic to Boots’ Facebook menopause resources
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229,374 Meta impressions with an ad recall lift rate of 12.63%
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On social, we reached 500k people. That’s over 50% of the women in each city visited
Boots wants to offer accessible help to those experiencing the menopause. From specialist training for our online GP’s and store team members, to introducing helpful labelling to products that can help across our stores and online. Working with This Morning was a natural fit and allowed us to extend our reach to support those going through the menopause and perimenopause across the country.Pete Markey, CMO, Boots
