Results and Effectiveness

The campaign was a resounding success. We got an impressive total video viewing as almost 500 million. The sex toy in plot totally got 40 million playing times during the plays. 3.43% users initiatively clicked to the in video pop-up banners, and 1,380 users clicked the “click-to-buy” button, 5% open rate in ecommerce site. 5 million search results and 2 million Sina Weibo earned media generated by the campaign. Durex successfully promoted its sex toy product. Sale increased by 142%.

Creative Execution

We created a new platform for conversations through an interactive social campaign and become part of existing conversations. To create new conversations for Durex, we created an interactive campaign ‘Travel with Love’, which followed a young couple on their journey across China with only our Durex sex toys as currency. They traded for food, accommodation but most importantly, conversations with real people. This journey was filmed and shared with consumers on Sina Weibo, where users interacted with our couple and each other, creating major buzz across social and PR…even on local TV news! To tap into existing conversations about relationships, we identified an opportunity to co-operate with ‘Girls’ - a major online TV program. We integrated our sex toys in the storyline overlaying an interactive display format providing options to view product info as well as offering a one-click to buy option on Durex’s e-commerce site.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

There’s a huge paradox in China. Chinese couples have more sex than any other countries in Asia, yet it is still a taboo. It is rarely seen or mentioned on TV and condom advertising is strictly banned on traditional media. This has created an environment where conversation about sex is not socially accepted. Not being able to use traditional media channels, meant we needed to think creatively about how to build awareness of the Durex brand and increase sales. In China, consumers are increasingly reliant on digital especially on social, Weibo, WeChat, mobile Apps and viral content sharing. They enjoy consuming content anywhere. We knew that the key to success lie in social - we needed to normalize sex toys and create conversations online that were not taking place in the mainstream. To bring conversations beyond the bedroom and into the everyday.