We knew guys don’t care about their choice of underwear, so we had to find a different way to get through to them. Something other than the usual product benefits of 100% cotton or a seamless stitch.

We realized that what guys do care about is the comfort of their balls. If we could get guys thinking about the impact a poorly fitting pair of undies has on their crown jewels they’d be more open to our retail messages.

So we created a pair of talking testicles to highlight everything that men’s ‘boys’ go through. From cold swims to bumpy bike rides to manscaping, we were able to remind men that their ‘boys’ go through a lot and deserve the very best undies. Shot on a shoestring budget our videos featured two men, dressed in lycra, sat in suspended wicker baskets talking to an offscreen charchter - the brain.

The execution was brutally simple. Two guys, dressed in lycra represented our ‘Boys’. They sat in hanging wicker chairs, one slightly lower than the other, talking with an off-screen ‘Brain’. We portrayed them encountering the usual traumatic situations that all men’s balls encounter – going for a swim, suffering inside a cricket box and even meeting some other balls in the showers.

The campaign grew in scale over three months, building the story of our ‘Boys’ across all media. The films were released sequentially online and on TV to build up a narrative and leave our audience looking forward to the next installment. Paid Facebook videos and YouTube pre-rolls were key online media components. In print mediums the visual signature of our ‘Boys’ and some comical headlines was enough to drive recall in large format outdoor before in-centre panels, and POS in Bonds stores and key retail partner stores prompted action.

'The Boys’ has been transformative for the Bonds Mens Underwear business. Although the campaign is ongoing in the fourth week of the current conversion phase Mens Underwear sales had grown by 161% and web traffic to the Mens Underwear page on bonds.com.au had grown by 420%.

The videos have been viewed over 6 million times to date nad total the campaign has delivered 22.8million impressions across all touch-points.

Bonds social media records have been smashed with likes, comments and shares far exceeding Bonds norms. An average cost per view for each video is $0.07 and engagement levels are above norms too with video completion rates above 50% - that statistic includes the three long-form videos.

Bonds tracking has shown that awareness of ‘The Boys’ amongst our target of men 18-39 is over 40%, which for minimal production and media investment is better than the results a big-budget Bonds TV campaign.

We created an integrated campaign featuring two talking testicles to remind men to look after their ‘Boys’. The campaign included long-form and short form online film (launched via social media), television, outdoor (including large format and in-centre digital screens) and in-store point of sale.

We knew 18-39 year old guys don’t care much about their choice of underwear, so we had to find a different way to get through to them. Something other than the usual product benefits of 100% cotton or a seamless stitch.

We realized that what guys do care about is the comfort of their balls. If we could get guys thinking about the impact a poorly fitting pair of undies has on their crown jewels they’d be more open to our messages.

With that insight in mind we then needed to work out how to reach guys. A mix of traditional and non-traditional media was key. Traditional media like TV and large format outdoor drove mass awareness, online channels allowed longer form and more risqué content that got guys talking and sharing our work with their friends. Retail panels and POS then helped us to convert that awareness into sales.

Bonds is the biggest underwear brand in Australia. For years they have had little to no competition in their category. Bonds had become ubiquitous, and pretty much the standard that men were comfortable with.

In recent times however aggressive private labels had ramped up their attack and were half the price of Bonds. And as ‘fast followers’ their product innovation and styles closely replicated those of Bonds.

Bonds knew they had to be clever in how they started to firstly get men to care more about their undies, with the longer-term ambition of eventually helping the men of Australia to justify the price premium that comes with a pair of Bonds.

Thus with a long-term behaviour change strategy in place, the campaign objectives were:

1. Get Australian males 18-39 thinking and talking with their mates about their (choice of) undies.

2. Re-establish Bonds credentials as the owner of ‘comfy undies’.