This story originally appeared in Marketing’s French Daily, Au Quotidien
Taxi Montreal has launched a daring video on the web and in Toronto bars to remind young women of the vital help the Plan B morning after pill can bring them.
The 30-second ad opens with a blurry blue screen that focuses to reveal a close up of a human egg. As the sexual groans and moans of a man and a woman get increasingly excited, sperm swim onto the screen toward the egg. As the couple climax, the man says “Damn, it broke baby” at which point the sperm swim into formation to spell out “Screwed?”
The video will only be broadcast on the web and on digital screens in Toronto bar bathrooms (in partnership with NewAd and Zoom). In Quebec, only web banners were created to attract young women to PlanB.ca.
“Because of a limited budget, we concentrated our efforts on the larger population, which is in Toronto,” explained Anne-Marie Leclair, vice-president of strategic planning for Taxi Montreal.
Visitors to the site can get information about the pill and where it can be bought, and download a “sperm” font for their computers.
The blunt approach was the only way to effectively reach the target market, said Leclair. “Our quantitative research showed that women in their early twenties have the most at-risk sexual relations for undesired pregnancies,” she said. “The majority know of the morning after pill, but too often assume that they don’t need it.”
During group interviews with Taxi, young women often failed to identify sexual practices or events that put them at risk for undesired pregnancies.
“A condom that breaks, the man that pulls out in time, the daily pill that was only forgotten once… None of these situations was considered enough of a risk to go get the morning after pill,” said Leclair.
“This is a generation that believes it will always have the answers to the problems and that nothing is serious. They think they are invincible. This is why a campaign with a pregnant woman or a baby would not have worked at all. They would not have been receptive, so we had to use a language that reflected the way they experience sexuality.”
The strategy was less about promoting brand knowledge and more about promoting awareness in young women of the risks they encounter, said Leclair.
Last year’s Taxi campaign for Plan B was followed by a 19% increase in sales within a few months. However, “as I tell our client, the goal is that one day we will no longer need to take the morning after pill,” said Leclair.
Created in 2000 by the Paladin Laboratories, Plan B is available over the counter and by prescription.
