Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

We needed to get people talking about a subject that’s taboo: poop. Because avoiding it could lead to us ignoring vital health warnings. To do that, we placed ourselves in the daily routine of the average Singaporean; at housing estate lift lobbies, train and bus stations, social media and digital platforms, and the one place that thousands frequent every day—public toilets. Then, disguising the topic in euphemisms, we got the country talking, laughing, and importantly, taking action to donate their poop. Helping us solve illnesses by managing gut health.

Background

Gut health has been increasingly associated to a range of disorders, from eczema, arthritis, dementia, to deadly illnesses like heart disease, HIV, even cancer. Research is needed to find effective ways to improve our gut and overall health, and save lives. This is especially critical amongst asian populations. The majority of gut health studies specialise in the western microbiome and therefore, are inadequate in addressing the needs of those in Asia. AMILI is bridging that gap. They are Southeast Asia’s first and only microbiome library, compiling a database of stool samples to meet this crucial and unmet need. The brief was thus to launch a campaign to recruit at least 1,000 new stool donors and reach 250,000 unique individuals.

Describe the creative idea

Introducing Poophemisms. Inspired by the many names people have for poop, we curated a list of poop euphemisms spanning the 23 different local languages and dialects found in Singapore. So that we could talk about poop in a more subtle and humorous manner. From baking to business to banking, we showed how seemingly random acts (but each a euphemism for poop) had the power to save lives, and bought them to life in areas where our TA would frequent; on the commute to school or work (train platforms and bus stops), residential areas, and in workout studios. This piqued the interest of thousands, making donors out of them.

Describe the strategy

Singapore is a clean, politically correct, respectful society where there are clear social norms to adhere to. Talking about poop, and more specifically about donating your poop to a poop bank for research and purification so it can be transplanted into someone else, well that just isn’t done. But we needed to make this acceptable. We needed a subtle yet intriguing way to get people to see that donating poop, is just like donating your blood or plasma. Our strategy was found in what people already say. Why try to make conversations clinical when people are happy to talk about poop through euphemisms. In fact, using euphemisms for pooping is what all the cultures, languages, and age groups of Singapore have in common. So by focusing our strategy on language, and partnering it with visuals that brought the euphemism to life, we could make the taboo normal.

Describe the execution

We wanted our communications to be eye-catching, light-hearted, and yet compelling. Across our assets, we relied heavily on big bold typography, clean and minimalist layouts, and tongue-in-cheek stock imagery. For our Poophemism key visuals, we leaned into the fact that we were using stock images and purposefully selected images that appeared more typically “stocky” or had some semblance to poop or pooping. Our treatment to the visuals was minimal, allowing the visuals and Poophemism headline to shine on their own. Each Poophemism was tagged with “saves lives” to drive our key message of #PoopSavesLives.

List the results

For donor registrations, we saw a six-fold increase and growth in the donor pipeline as compared to pre-campaign levels. This allowed us to achieve 27% of the campaign objective in just the first 13 days of an eight-week campaign. All of our media combined garnered a 6,240% increase in website visits, which is five times our campaign target. And in an island with a population of 5.9 million, our campaign got a reach of 9.7 million based on trade and consumer press, and social media. These were the results gathered from just the first two weeks since we launched. The campaign is ongoing and is projected to exceed our campaign targets, based on our current run rate.