Smart-thinking Durex SOS campaign hijacked

Joss Davidge, business director of brand experience agency BEcause, continues his weekly search for great marketing ideas.

This week he looks at a great campaign from Durex, which ends with a twist.

Durex loves causing a bit of a stir with its marketing campaigns. The upfront, dare to bare all tactics, which latch onto trends and remodel them with Durex’s sense of fun and humour, always cause a ripple of excitement amongst consumers and marketers alike.

This week I present Durex’s SOS Condom campaign. Launched earlier in the year in Dubai, the brand created a bespoke app that enabled users to order emergency condoms directly to the place they had found themselves without one. The needed condom would arrive within an hour of being ordered and, with usual wit, Durex also made an effort to be as discreet as possible - turning up kitted out as a pizza delivery service.

Here is the campaign video, there are some great results and it certainly got people talking.


But the story continues. Off the back of the success of this trial run and bobbing on the waves of appreciation it got from consumers, Durex created a competition to bring the SOS service to other cities around the world. With one fatal oversight, Durex left the choice of city completely open. It didn’t list or limit the potential location choices, so in a few months an unexpected winner emerged: the city of Batman.

When I first came across this I had little doubt that Durex would make the most of this unfortunate, but quite funny, winner – undoubtedly chosen by internet trolls. Yet, the campaign came to an abrupt halt as Batman is actually a real place - a small, ultra-conservative city in southern Turkey. Not wishing to cause offence, Durex dissolved the campaign.

The fundamental campaign idea is brilliant and should not be overlooked. Providing a service at a time of need is a great way to get people talking and generate real fans who want to engage with your brand. Unfortunately, this campaign is also an interesting example of the perils of connecting with consumers through social media. Social media is a fantastic addition to the marketing toolkit and often proves to be a great way to develop conversations with consumers. But, as this campaign goes to show, strategies should be thoroughly scrutinised and a degree of caution almost certainly needs to be thrown to the wind.

Read more from Joss Davidge in our Clubhouse.