Cannes Lions

Mt. Fuji

MRM NEW YORK, New York / DUREX / 2024

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Background

Durex is the world’s number one sexual freedom brand, but it is second place in India. Where sex is a taboo topic for India’s 1.4 billion people, as societal shame, stigma, and outdated views on tradition cover it up.

This presented a hurdle across the nation for Durex to overcome. The challenge for a brand all about freedom of expression was to find a solution that would get people talking about Durex products and buying them, without Durex talking about sex.

The brief was simple but big, how can Durex break through the taboo topic of sex to increase sales of its products in India.

The objective was to create a message that not only increased sales, but also generated an uplift in social engagement and brand advocacy.

Idea

Durex Mt Fuji is a secret commerce code for the Internet to unlock a world of Durex products.

To break the taboo topic of sex in India and promote its products, Durex took something iconic in culture and turned it directly into a transaction.

The film Lust Stories 2 on Netflix featured a controversial grandma (also known as Daadi Ma in Hindi), who compared her own orgasms to erupting like ‘Mount Fuji’… It’s true. Durex hijacked the cultural conversation about her, and using a commerce channel, we turned her phrase into a commerce secret code ‘MTFUJI’.

It was seeded on a shoppable post to convert talk into real action with every transaction, letting everyone reach their own Mt Fuji on durexindia.com.

The Durex ‘MTFUJI’ code & Intensegasm play kit became ‘the world’s first package to the summit of your pleasure’, erupting the nation’s desires and Durex sales figures.

Strategy

50% of India’s population is under 25 years old, yet sex is a taboo topic for everyone due to social stigma and tradition. According to Sage Journals, 71% of India’s youth in 17 states (13-30 years) reported not being taught about sexuality by teachers or parents. Social listening showed everyone’s opinionated about sex in entertainment, while social algorithms censor sex.

This insightful data sparked our strategy: break the taboo topic of sex in India to promote Durex products.

We started with Lust Stories 2 on Netflix, starring a controversial grandma (also known as Daadi Ma in Hindi), who compared her own orgasms to erupting like ‘Mount Fuji’! By hijacking cultural conversation and using a commerce channel, we turned her phrase into a commerce secret code ‘MTFUJI’ that bypassed social’s censoring algorithms.

A MTFUJI shoppable post converted sex talk into real action with every transaction at durexindia.com.

Execution

Durex Mt Fuji is a commerce secret code for the Internet to unlock a world of Durex products.

We found that Lust Stories 2 on Netflix starred a controversial grandma (also known as Daadi Ma in Hindi), who compared her own orgasms to erupting like ‘Mount Fuji’! By hijacking cultural conversation about her and using a commerce channel, we turned her phrase into a commerce secret code ‘MTFUJI’.

The code was seeded on Instagram, where a shoppable post converted everyone’s talk into real action with every package to reach their own Mount Fuji at durexindia.com.

This e-commerce solution directly targeted social savvy and opinion-sharing Indians. As Durex earned their attention, their Mt Fuji chatter spread across the nation with a monsoon of memes.

The Durex ‘MTFUJI’ code & Intensegasm transaction became ‘the world’s first package to the summit of your pleasure’, erupting the nation’s desires and Durex sales figures.

Outcome

Using a commerce channel combined with hijacking a cultural conversation proved to be an incredibly effective way for Durex to break the taboo topic of sex, relate to the youthful audience across India, and promote its products. Even the Bollywood media got in on the action as Durex hit deeper with the local and national Indian market, so the whole nation could reach the summit of their own pleasure. Which all led to one thing… Durex numbers blowing up with thrilling results:

Durex Mt Fuji sparked 29% sales increase.

Triggered the single-biggest share gain in the brand's history,

60% higher rate of change in growth from previous month

An increase of 32.4% in brand advocates compared to its average.

Jump in social engagement by 59.1K.

Earned over 62.1 million media impressions.

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