Stockholm Aids Prevention ‘Where will 100,000 condoms end up?’

Best practice from Ester Stockholm, Sweden. Gold winner in the Promo Activation category at the Cannes Lions 2010.

Describe the brief from the client

Even though Swedes know that condoms are generally a good idea, they aren't that good at using them.

Our target audience (Stockholmers 20-30) has become more careless and, consequentially, HIV and other diseases are growing in numbers. The problem, studies suggest, lies in attitude.

Condoms are often seen as an embarrassing break, an inconvenience. Our brief from LAFA (Stockholm Aids Prevention Program) was to the turn the target audience on to safe sex - making the condom part of the fun.

The objective was to find a distribution form and an idea which could literally make condoms sexier.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Sex is always an interesting topic. So rather than focus on what might happen after sex if you don't use a condom, we focused on how much fun you can have using one. By printing 100 000 condoms with numbers we gave every condom a story to be told by whoever got lucky with it.

Every condom-package contained a uniquely numbered condom and a text that encouraged the recipient to share the condoms fate, by uploading his or her story at the blog kondom08.nu

The 100 000 condoms became the message, the media and also the solution.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Kondom08.nu was visited by over 110,000 Stockholmers which exceeded our goal by 220 %.

Over 500 stories were published varying from short statements to erotic novels. The numbered condoms were featured in all the big newspapers, on national TV and radio, in thousands of blogs and twitters.

The campaign made 37 % of the target audience more positive towards using condoms, already in July, Chlamydia-cases were down 13 % compared to 2008.

The campaign grew outside Stockholm and made 100 000 condoms the number 1 national media during 10 hot summer weeks. Lots of young Swedes got laid.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The numbered condoms were handed out free in Stockholm at festivals, events and through specially designed condom-posters at bars and cafés, which contained 20 condoms in number sequence.

By distributing condoms in environments where young people hook up, we made it easier for the audience both to talk about safe sex and practice it.

And by labeling every condom with a number, we underlined the fact that every condom has a story to tell.

These stories, told by users themselves, meant that the heart of the campaign was in exact words based on user-related content. Print, guerilla and virals supported.