For the first time ever, Durex in Malaysia wanted to use the digital medium to reach out to and educate youths aged 16 - 21 about safe sex. With this target audience, we knew we would have to be careful not to turn them off by coming across as preachy or authoritarian. Digging deeper, we learned that while youths display little concern about STDs, they dread unwanted pregnancies. This was the messaging platform we took. The idea was to bring the horror of an unplanned pregnancy to life in a funny way – by humorously showing how ugly their accidental offspring would be. Our Facebook app lets users combine two pictures to create frightful babies. Youths paired friends, strangers and even celebrities, triggering amplification via tagging, sharing and notifications. The Facebook-connected mobile version of the app provided a flirtatious opener to make new friends on-the-go. Throughout the campaign, we engaged Facebook fans with cheeky and teaser postings. 2,553 apps were downloaded with a 199.2% increase in Facebook fans - a significant milestone, as Durex has always been limited in their ability to reach youths due to religious and cultural restrictions in above-the-line advertising.

From 20 June – 25 July 2012, the TINY TROLLS Facebook application promoted safe sex by creating a generation of humorously-ugly offspring, each born by combining two pictures. The app picked facial features to blend and exaggerate, creating hideous trolls. The message was that one could avoid tiny trolls by using Durex.

Users could pair partners/friends with strangers/celebrities to prank one another. This high replay value led to amplification of the app, as creating trolls would trigger notifications, and each could be tagged and shared.

To boost participation, we engaged fans on Facebook with pre-campaign teasers, call-to-actions to use Tiny Trolls, celebrity hook-ups, and cheeky/humorous reminders on using condoms.

As youths are constantly on-the-go and using their mobile phones, we also created a mobile version with Facebook Connect. It provided a flirtatious ice-breaker to meet new friends in their spontaneous, day-to-day interactions, and an excuse to add each other on Facebook.

Success was indicated by the level of engagement and fan acquisition we managed to garner through Facebook and mobile during the campaign period of 20 June – 25 July 2012:

• 2,553 total app downloads

• 11,663 new Facebook fans acquired

o 199.20% increase as compared to Apr – May 2012

• 19,703 people talking about it daily on Facebook during the campaign period

o 80.12% increase as compared to Apr – May 2012

• 61,910 total engaged users on Facebook

o 112.73% increase as compared to Apr – May 2012

• 29,251,039 total campaign impressions

These results were achieved despite the campaign not having strong media support (only Facebook stamp ads). This was a significant milestone for the client because due to religious and cultural restrictions in advertising in Malaysia, they cannot openly communicate safe sex in above-the-line materials, and hence would not have been able to reach so many youths.