The Campaign

To break the taboo and get women talking about Vaginal Yeast Infection, we wanted to reach them at a time and place they feel comfortable. Creating the pop-song ‘No Itchy’, based on a classic love song ‘Nobody’ (sounding similar in Cantonese). At first, the lyrics hint at a women's secret love for a man, but she's too shy to speak up. Then it transpires that something else is afflicting her and causing her suffering: Vaginal Yeast Infection. Her friend then sing to her it's normal and nothing to be ashamed of. They end up happily in a pharmacy, where her beloved runs in for a romantic climax. We launched the song exactly as if we were promoting a new hit record. So not only is it easy for our targets to relate to, they can also sing it openly at social gatherings and share ‘their unspoken secret’ together.

Creative Execution

We launched the campaign exactly as if we were promoting a new record. The music video was released on YouTube. The CD was made exclusively available in HMV. Or you could download it on iTunes, Spotify and other music apps. Outdoor posters promoted the record and included a YouTube search word so people could find the film online. Radio stations played along to help plug the song. We also adopted SEM at Google & Yahoo, and retargeting at YouTube to enhance the awareness. And, this being Hong Kong, we had to give people the chance to sing along with their friends. So we teamed up with Neway, the largest karaoke box in the city.

The music video was a big hit, making the Top Ten on YouTube Music. With over 600,000 views in a country with a population of just over 7 million, it reached an estimated 2 in 3 of our young female target audience. People even shared their own versions on social media. There was a 20% increase in sales versus the same period in last year, outperforming last year's Effie-winning campaign. Our sales figures are the best for at least 5 years in Hong Kong.

Nowadays people are increasingly ad-proof. And in Hong Kong, medical advertising is usually boring and indirect. Our campaign successfully engaged our target audience via a strong idea that was brought to life in an innovative and relevant mix of media, including a YouTube music video, radio airplay, a CD release, iTunes, Spotify, and a listing in Hong Kong's largest Karaoke Box.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our target Audience are women in Hong Kong, especially those aged between 25 to 39, who have suffered from yeast infection at least once before. To optimize our limited media budget, we needed a channel that served broad enough coverage while matching well with the ‘pop culture’ setting. Our strategy was to think of the campaign as if we were a music publisher, not an advertiser, and to maximize our presence across as many relevant touch-points as possible.