Putting period care in the starting lineup

Two founders, one very overdue rethink.

Sequel is a tampon brand from two engineers and former athletes who noticed the category hadn’t meaningfully changed in almost a century. Their redesign won over female athletes fast and earned them the title of Official Tampon Partner of the Indiana Fever.

As part of that partnership, Sequel gets one Spotlight Game per season at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and this year’s game arrived with news worthy of a packed house: Fever center Aliyah Boston was signing on as ambassador and co-owner.

Proof beats persuasion.

With Aliyah joining the team, Sequel had a claim most brands can only allude to: we’re your favorite athlete’s favorite product. Our challenge was to make an arena full of Fever fans believe it.

We placed the product among items fans already recognize as unmistakably hers, in a space clearly owned by the star center. Put it in that company, and the claim stops being marketing copy and becomes something fans can take at face value.

Her nameplate. Her jersey. Her locker.

To do this, we built a recreation of Aliyah’s locker room in the main concourse of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Then we filled it with all of her favorite things, Sequel tampons included, and put everything up for grabs in a digital, instant-win mystery box game.

Inside the experience, fans could explore Aliyah’s game-day favorites and snap a perfectly lit mirror selfie.

Scan the code, pop a box, win the loot.

Speaking of snapping, signage and QR codes placed around the space invited fans to play a custom-built digital mystery box game right on their phones. Scan the code, pick a box, instantly win one of Aliyah’s favorite things from the locker room set: a signed jersey, her signature adidas sneakers, a temporary tattoo of her dog Ozzy, a year’s supply of your favorite athlete’s favorite tampon, and more. The game was popular enough that a line began forming 1.5 hours before tip-off.

Entries were gated, capturing first-party fan data Sequel can now use to build out its own community and re-engage this audience long after the final buzzer.

One corner of the concourse, the whole arena’s attention.

Since the build only filled one corner of the concourse, we needed smart ways to drive more fans to the activation. So we placed that same QR code everywhere fans were already looking: jumbotron creative, wayfinding, signage stacked throughout the arena. To collect their prize, most winners had to visit our locker room activation in the concourse, turning every win into another lap with the Sequel brand.

A stadium full of fans introduced to their favorite athlete’s favorite tampon.

Period products usually live behind a restroom door. For one night, they sat on a lit shelf beside a signature sneaker and a signed jersey, and fans queued down the concourse to get their photo next to all three. Thousands came through, 5,000 Sequel boxes went home in fans’ hands, and the energy carried straight into Forbes, which covered the activation alongside the announcement of Aliyah’s co-ownership.