How is radio helping to stop the spread of HIV?

HERO Condoms, a socially responsible condom company donating one condom for every condom sold in Australia to a developing country to help stop the spread of HIV, has just launched their first ever radio advertising campaign.

Kim Napier caught up with founder and CEO Dustin Leonard to ask why he chose radio.

“HERO Condoms are available in Coles, Woolworths and select IGA stores nationwide in Australia and are also available in 97% of Countdown grocery stores in New Zealand.  We would really like to see a significant lift in sales to ensure we can continue to increase our donations.

It was important for us to be able to utilize the small marketing budget we have and still get the large reach we require, and we believed radio to be the best fit for that. Radio can often be seen as quite intimate, people are usually listening in their cars or at home. Buying condoms can often be seen as an intimate purchasing decision so we wanted to reach the right people in the right frame of mind, “ says Dustin.

I have heard the ads, using your ambassadors to voice them. They are nice and simple, with a straight forward call to action that doesn’t get bogged down in the back story (which is death and disease really). Is that what you had set out to achieve?
 

“It’s hard to convey all that we do in a short 15 or 30 sec Ad. We worked hard on perfecting the right messaging to have cut through in what can sometimes be a cluttered medium. Having Brittney Lee Saunders and Tim Dormer on board is fantastic; it really helps grab the audience’s attention. They are good fit for our target audience, which was really important for us.”

You have donated a lot of condoms so far – prior to radio how did you get yourself out and about?

“Utilizing social media has been one of the key channels for HERO. We understand that our key target markets are avid social media users so it’s been important that we have a strong social media presence. On our recent trip to Botswana we had former Big Brother Winner and current Celebrity Apprentice contestant Tim Dormer join us as our HERO intern. During the trip he was using his own social media channels to promote and document his personal journey on the ground. Public Relations has also been an important tool we have used during the growth of the business, being a new to the market conscious consumerism company in the growth stage we haven’t had large budgets to be spending on above the line marketing, the history and mission behind our brand has allowed to receive a lot of positive publicity.”

How do you plan to measure the success of this radio campaign? 

“As mentioned above an increase in sales would be the best way to measure the success of the campaign. However we will also be tracking figures through our social channels. We understand that our brand awareness on this platform may increase due to the involvement of both Tim and Brittney who have really high social media followings.”

The campaign will run across the NOVA network in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Take a listen.

 

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