Trampolines, Boxer Shorts and Talking Urinals: Cause Marketing That Packs a Punch

At Colehour + Cohen a huge part of our work is taking a cause that people only care about peripherally and making it awesome. Some of our work that I've been happiest with lately has been our work with Public Heath Seattle & King County on the not-so-fun topic of STDs (namely syphilis and HIV) in Seattle's gay community.

Nationwide, these are diseases that are coming back with a vengeance, so our job has been to get the word out in Seattle to be aware, get tested often and get treated.

These are topics that are naturally off-putting and aren't at all embraced by some segments of the gay community. Actually, some of the research I've been exposed to in preparing these campaigns has shown a surprising and sad amount of apathy that needs to be cut through.

Which means it was time to make these topics AWESOME. Here are some of the ways we've done it:

At the Seattle Pride Parade and Pride Fest, we put together a logistical nightmare of a float that promoted the new Find Your Frequency tool that provides information on how often one should get tested for HIV. Our float featured good-looking guys in FindYourFrequency.com boxer shorts jumping on a trampoline. The float was a huge hit with parade goers and a a huge headache for our insurance.

We also distributed hundreds of pairs of FindYourFrequency.com boxer shorts along the parade route and at Pride Fest with an air cannon. People love free stuff. Especially free stuff delivered via air cannon.

Following launch, we undertook a major online advertising campaign focused on sites that guys use to find hookups like Grindr and Manhunt. Let's... just say the ads are eye catching and leave it at that.

Another huge component of the campaign has involved placing materials in Seattle's gay bars, clubs and bathhouses. The most important part of this effort has been standing out from the pack -there are plenty of campaigns vying for space on coasters or posters, so we took things up a notch by placing motion-activated talking urinal cakes in bathrooms. Yes, really. Also, people steal them all the time. Which, once you get past the gross factor, is awesome. Stolen urinal cakes just means that our message is getting farther.

The bottom line is this: causes and behavior change campaigns don't have to be boring and feel good. They can be edgy, they can be shocking and they can be fun.