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Mates Healthcare is promoting its condoms by investing £90,000 in a viral marketing campaign based on its Wild Thing cinema

ad.

Creative for the 45-second Wild Thing ad, which forms part of a total

advertising budget of £1 million, features various animals mating,

ending with the strapline: 'If you're going to do the wild thing, use a

Mates condom' (see Analysis, p14).

The ad has been edited down to 25 seconds for viral use by Grey

Communications' subsidiary agency Joshua. It uses a new music

soundtrack.

About 200 people from the agency, other clients and key suppliers

initially seeded the email. It has been attached to the email

newsletters of club site Ministry of Sound, gay portal Rainbow Network

and a number of student lists.

Identical versions of the clip are labelled differently so that the

relative success of each distribution route can be tracked.

"There are lots of viral campaigns out there, but how do you measure

which ones are working?" said Chris Bell, director and general manager

of Mates Healthcare. "This is why tracking is very important. We also

wanted to associate humour with the brand, because sex is supposed to be

fun and enjoyable."

Bell added that the email lets Mates use the ad creative in as many

different ways as possible, including reaching consumers who are in

regions outside London and the Southeast, where the cinema ads have been

concentrated.

Mates Healthcare is part of the Australian Pacific Dunlop group and

doesn't currently have a branded web offering for its Mates condom

brand. Bell said that it would be developing a site in the future, and

pointed out that Mates has funded an educational sexual health site.