How Procter & Gamble beat ROI benchmarks by 58% with authentic storytelling
Thula Cruickshank is a senior brand communications manager for Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) South African division for baby and feminine products, such as Always. Anke Nel is the client partner and P&G agency on record (AOR) lead at WPP Media and assists on marketing strategies for Always.
Brands that have successfully scaled across Africa have learnt a crucial lesson early on: long-term product adoption relies on brand trust. As new data from Ipsos has revealed, consumers on the continent are the only people in the world to consider trust as a top-three driver of brand desire.1
For us at Always, a longstanding brand in the feminine hygiene category in the South African market, maintaining this trust required evolving alongside changing consumer behaviours, culture, and content viewing habits. And when it came to launching our new Maxi Slim product, we turned to where women and girls naturally spent their time: scrolling, streaming, and searching on YouTube.
Here’s how we achieved significant brand awareness and consideration with original, creative storytelling — and at unprecedented cost-efficiency.
When audience behaviour informs strategy
Before the creative side of the campaign could be conceptualised, we began by understanding audience behaviour in South Africa.
We knew that modern viewing habits among Gen Z and Gen Alpha women and girls included a blend of formats across YouTube, from Shorts to Connected TV (CTV). Moreso, we learnt that South Africa is ranked globally as the top country for screen time consumption,2 making the market ripe for building brand-to-consumer trust
We needed to show that we understood her world; that we could connect with her culturally.
This next insight, however, took our strategy to a deeper level: branded video content drives scale for our range of menstrual cycle products, while short-form creator content drives authentic connections and peer-to-peer trust.
To achieve both, our partners at WPP Media, Leo Burnett and Humanz helped us build a multi-format strategy prioritising local vernacular language, relational experiences, and a diverse crew of young women.
“From an agency perspective, we needed to show that we understood her world; that we could connect with her culturally, and solidify the perception that Always products are to be trusted,” said Anke Nel, P&G’s client partner lead from WPP.
The creatives: 2 prongs, 1 community
Our multi-format approach focused on community-first content using both creator partnerships and episodic branded ads.
1. Creator-led authenticity on YouTube Shorts
We partnered with South African lifestyle creator Clarissa Magunde, known as “coffee no milk” on YouTube. Our creative brief to her centred on the hook of “finding the one”, a relatable experience usually shared in romantic dating. However, this time around it focused on finding the perfect product for one’s menstrual cycle.
Rather than giving her a rigid script, our team gave her creative freedom to engage with her audience naturally. Her warmth and vulnerability allowed Always South Africa to destigmatise discussions around periods in a conversational, natural manner, which aligned with our goal to empower all women and girls with confidence and strength.
2. Episodic branded ads
To complement the above, the campaign included a seven-part episodic series featuring a dynamic, relatable group of young, female friends. These videos also had a theme: being there “through thick and thin”, as best friends are, but doubled as a signal to our product proposition that introduced a pad that is thick in the middle for absorption and thin on the edges for a “no-show” effect.
The series introduced the product subtly, mentioning the Maxi Slim range until the second half of episode two. This organic integration allowed viewers to engage with the storyline and characters of the episodes without feeling directly sold to.
Let the results flow: Exceptional scale and cost efficiency
Remaining true to our customer-centric ethos allowed the campaign to flourish in ways we didn’t expect:
- The campaign’s cost-efficiency reflects how well people engaged with the content, at just R0.07 per view.
- The cost-per-view beat internal financial benchmarks by 58%, proving marketing’s effectiveness in business value terms.
- Maxi Slim’s product awareness in the feminine hygiene vertical lifted by 40% in three months.
4 takeaways for marketing decision-makers
- Mix creator authenticity with branded scale:Creator content builds community and trust, while a structured branded series delivers commercial scale. Combining both of these on YouTube maximises relevance and reach.
- Involve agency and platform partners early: “Early collaboration allowed us and the Always team to align on creating with intention, keeping the focus of the campaign consumer-centric,” said Nel.
- Prioritise message over script: Giving creators clear guardrails regarding product truths while letting them speak in their authentic voice produces far stronger audience resonance than rigid scripting.
- Design for platform nativeness: Rather than repurposing static linear ads for other channels, creating platform-specific content tailored for YouTube drives vastly superior cost-per-view efficiencies and ROI.
Thula Cruickshank
Senior Brand Communications Manager
Procter & Gamble, South Africa
1 Ipsos South Africa, Africa, Cracking the Africa code: The functional path to emotional excellence (part of Africa in Focus 2026), Feb. 2026.
2 Data Reportal, Global, Digital 2026 global overview report: The essential guide to the world’s connected behaviours, Oct. 2025.
