With the Christmas season approaching, Durex, the leading intimate wellness brand in Hong Kong, recognized the opportunity to drive increased cut-through and share of its condoms during this key period of incremental volume growth.

However, the category was increasingly driven by thinness where the brand faced competition from specialist "thin" condom brands like Okamoto and Sagami, which were increasingly popular among younger consumers.

This was a great challenge for Durex, as even with an overall 54% share of the category, its own ultra-thin 001 condoms only held ~10% share, which suggested that the brand was not well-positioned to capture the upcoming increase in category volume growth.

To close this portfolio gap and recapture market share, Durex needed to find a way to make their 001 condoms more appealing and relevant especially for younger consumers.

The creative idea behind the campaign stemmed from the insight that while Christmas gifting is a beloved tradition amongst younger consumers, it often comes with much anxiety trying to find the perfect present within a limited budget.

With a similar price to a typical gifting budget, Durex saw an opportunity to position their 001 ultra-thin condoms as a practical and thoughtful gift. However, they recognized that condoms were often perceived as too intimate and personal to be gifted, especially between friends and during the festive season.

To break this perception and make Durex 001 a socially acceptable Christmas gift, the brand collaborated with legendary local entertainer Wan Kwong, affectionately known as "Wan.K", to be the brand’s first-ever "Durex Santa," wherein the brand leveraged his popularity, witty wordplay, and colourful language to normalize the idea of gifting condoms between younger audiences.

Durex's strategy for the "A Christmas Wan.K" campaign thus focused on changing perceptions around gifting condoms and to position Durex 001 as a thoughtful and practical present for loved ones during the festive season by combining humour, cultural relevance, and strategic timing.

Firstly, the brand collaborated with Wan Kwong, a popular local entertainer known for his humorous and often indecent content, to create a series of engaging and culturally relevant activations.

Secondly, the campaign also heavily relied on Cantonese wordplay and cultural references, which allowed Durex to create clever and humorous linkages that allowed the brand to naturally inject itself in various topical facets of Christmas.

Lastly, the strategy also involved timing the campaign to coincide with Christmas Eve, colloquially known as "The Night Where One Gets Laid" in Hong Kong to strategically capture the incremental business volume during the most sexually active time of the year.

The campaign was executed through a multi-faceted approach that combined live events, social media, influencer partnerships, and product collaborations.

The centerpiece of the campaign was a busking event held outside Mong Kok Station, one of Hong Kong's busiest commuter spots, where Wan Kwong, dressed as "Durex Santa", performed his iconic songs and festive carols with a cheeky twist.

During the event, Durex distributed their 001 ultra-thin condoms as Christmas gifts, dubbed "The Thinnest Christmas Gift," which also means “A Humble Christmas Gift”, highlighting the product's key benefit. The event was broadcast live online by local media company Channel C and popular youth influencer JFFT, while top casual entertainment outlet KingJer shared highlights on Instagram.

Durex even created a special gift set featuring the 001 condoms and whisky glasses, which they sent to popular youth influencers where they each created content with links for audiences to buy the special gift set.

The "A Christmas Wan.K" campaign achieved remarkable results, successfully changing perceptions around gifting condoms and driving significant business outcomes for Durex.

The busking event attracted an enormous crowd, with numbers well into the thousands, prompting the MTR (Hong Kong's underground rail) to enforce crowd control measures. The campaign also garnered unprecedented engagement on social media, with over 70,000 likes on brand and influencer partners' posts (a 70-fold increase compared to previous campaigns) and more than 90,000 link clicks to redeem the special gift set (surpassing previous benchmarks of 3,000 clicks).

Most importantly, the campaign drove impressive sales results, with total Durex sales increasing by 39% and a 40% rise in new-to-brand shoppers. Durex's market share also grew by 4% post-campaign, solidifying its position as the leading intimate wellness and preferred condom brand in Hong Kong.