THE BOYS

TitleTHE BOYS
BrandPACIFIC BRANDS UNDERWEAR GROUP AUSTRALIA
Product / ServiceBONDS
CategoryA02. TV & Broadcast: Fiction & Non-Fiction
EntrantCLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Production GUILTY CONTENT Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Contributing FINISH PRODUCTIONS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Contributing 2 FLAGSTAFF STUDIOS Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Contributing 3 PACIFIC BRANDS UNDERWEAR GROUP Hartwell, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
James McGrath Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Creative Chairman
Ant Keogh Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Chief Creative Officer
Paul le Couteur Flagstaff Studios Sound Designer / Engineer
Michael Derepas Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Planning Director
Anthony Phillips Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Creative Director
Richard Williams Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Creative Director
Tony Rogers Guilty Productions Director
Marin Johnson Guilty Productions DOP / Cinematographer
Richard Hamer Guilty Productions Editor
Jason Byrne Guilty Productions Producer
Simon Lamplough Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Group Managing Partner
Kellie Lennon Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Business Director
Grant Oorloff Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Account Director
Emily Small Pacific Brands Underwear Group Head of Marketing - Bonds

The Campaign

We knew guys don’t care about their choice of underwear, so we had to find a different way to get through to them. We realized that what guys do care about is the comfort of their balls. If we could get guys thinking about the impact a poorly fitting pair of undies has on their crown jewels they’d be more open to our messages. So we created a pair of talking testicles to highlight everything that our “boys” go through. Our two balls were dressed in gold lycra and sat in egg shaped hanging chairs. From showers to bumpy bike rides to manscaping, we were able to remind men that their boys go through a lot and deserve the very best undies.

Creative Execution

We shared the trials and tribulations of our ‘Boys’ via four TVCs as part of a broader campaign. We launched the TVC’s over a period of four weeks, dropping them into people’s lounge rooms one by one. We aligned the male-orientated media-buy to the creative executions using sports programs to launch ‘Cycle’ and ‘Lunges’ and comedy shows for ‘Trim’ and ‘Talc’. Despite a minimal production budget the boys made quite an impact. A pair of talking testes is not something Australian’s see everyday on their TV screens.. Seeing our ‘boys’ cycling, having talcum powder applied to them, getting shaved and then popping out in the gym was a novel moment and as awareness grew, so other media supported the national TV launch and the campaign spead online, in large format outdoor and in retail centres.

'The Boys’ has been transformative for the Bonds Mens Underwear business. Although the campaign is ongoing in the fourth week of the current conversion phase Mens Underwear sales had grown by 161% and web traffic to the Mens Underwear page on bonds.com.au had grown by 420%.

Bonds, Australia’s largest underwear brand, wanted their undies to be not just well known but famous. To do this we created four pieces of film to air on television. The overall objective of the films was to enter popular culture and get men at the pub not talking about sport or movies but their underwear, a subject we knew they had little to no interest in.

Beyond the somewhat exciting (and daunting) task of driving FAME in a super-low interest category. Our core demographic was Men aged 18-39 and we were executing an awareness strategy so television played a pivotal role in the communication plan. If we could create content that was engaging and funny enough (and sometimes borderline inappropriate) hopefully our desired audience would respond by generating word of mouth and mass awareness of the campaign. And of ocurse, replacing those old uncomfortable, hole-ridden undies with some fresh new ones, delivered to their door.

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