We’ve seen a handful of very compelling videos this year: Budweiser’s Puppy Love was the mega-hit of the Super Bowl; Save the Children gave us chills with Most Shocking Second a Day; Wren, a Los Angeles-based clothing company, came out of obscurity with First Kiss; Dove proved its storytelling chops (once again) with Patches; and Nike showed it is the master of the World Cup with Risk Everything.
Last week when Friskie’s released its Buzzfeed-produced video, Hello Kitten, I was ready to crown it as the best video of the year. I still can’t get enough of those two cats hiding from the monster vakum behind the curtains of invisibility – humor at its best.
But Hello Flo may have stolen that crown this week with its latest foray into branded video – First Moon Party – which has garnered nearly 6 million views just three days after its release.
Hello Flo is a tampon subscription service. Think Dollar Shave Club, but instead of sending you shaving supplies each month it provides a girl with everything she might need for that time of the month. It came onto the scene last year with its hilarious video, The Camp Gyno, which has a True Reach® of 7.6 million views. The ad caused a stir, in large part, because it didn’t skirt around the subject of menstruation; it even used the word vagina – gasp! – something that few femcare brands dare to do.
The brand’s latest ad is similarly bold.
It tells a story of a girl who is the last among her friends to start her period, so she fakes it. When her mom realizes she’s lying, however, she goes to extreme lengths to expose her daughter by throwing her a “Full Moon party.”
What is a Full Moon party, you ask? Well all I can say is that it involves Pin the Pad on the Period, bobbing for ovaries, a uterus shaped piñata, and vagician. The ad, which promotes the company’s new Period Starter Kit, embodies all the awkwardness and cringe-worthiness that comes with puberty.
There are a lot of startups that make their name with a break-through branded video. Hello Flo, Dollar Shave Club, Poo-Pourri, Goldie Blox, and Wren are all examples of how one video can make a brand a household name and the talk of the internet.
Where Hello Flo separates itself, however, is in its ability to create a second video that – in my opinion – is even better than the first. Dollar Shave Club, Poo-Pourri, and Goldie Blox have all produced second videos, but few live up to their debuts, even if they are entertaining.
The health of a startup relies on its ability to maintain a place in the public’s consciousness, but it’s more common than not for a brand to have one hit video and then fade into obscurity. With Full Moon Party, Hello Flo is once again the center of the social conversation and looking healthier than ever.