Mates Go Online with "I Shagged Here" Website 10 April 2003
Mates, owned by the global healthcare company Ansell Ltd, goes online next week (17th April) with a new website, www.ishaggedhere.com. The site, created by 3RD sense, launches as part of a £1.5 million integrated marketing campaign aimed at 16 to 24 year old urban males. The website is the centre of interaction for the 'I Shagged Here' campaign, and will allow visitors to submit stories and even videos of their most memorable shags. The site also hosts a game called 'Slam in the Lamb' and a section called 'Shags Re-acquainted' where you can search for past 'shags'.
Marketing & Business Development Manager EMEA, Remco Teulings, explains, 'We need to approach our younger consumers through the web in a genuinely stimulating and involved way if we are to address their growing awareness and concerns of sexual health. The up-front nature of the site encourages the confidence and freedom to enjoy great sex whilst allowing users the security and trust to relax and to have fun!'
The wider campaign revolves around the placement of 'I shagged here' commemorative red plaques (that echo the blue 'so and so lived here' plaques seen in central London). These will be posted in clubs and pubs around the country. On the site, visitors can create their own customised plaques and then place them in their selected location. They can also browse or email the 'I shagged here' stories and videos, or add their own.
All of the creative teams involved have worked extremely closely to develop a highly integrated marketing campaign, so the public will see much of the advertising plaques creative carried through into the PR campaign. On the back of the advertising activity, a Save Outdoor Sex (SOS) campaign has been developed to take on a more educational and informative role by addressing recent controversy surrounding the Government's intentions to regulate the law to having sex outdoors. Highlighting both serious and fun aspects to sex, SOS is designed to encourage activists to fight for their individual rights to have sex outdoors, but to stay on the right side of the law. Consumers wishing to be a part of the SOS campaign will be driven to a separate website, also designed by 3RD Sense, www.saveoutdoorsex.com which has been specifically developed to address the more serious side of the campaign and will encourage people to petition their local MP to lobby the cause.
According to Tom Gueterbock, 3RD sense's Director, the websites provide contact points for the campaign: 'The strong concepts (I Shagged Here), coupled with the bold offline promotion, drives audiences to the site. The slightly risqué content and the heavy consumer participation builds a self-generated momentum. We want visitors to become the catalysts for more interest and more visitors, and ultimately brand advocates for Mates'. . Teulings defines the aim of the campaign: 'The objective is to de-stigmatise the act of buying condoms by turning it into a celebration of sexual experiences. 3RD sense has delivered these sites that exploits the creative and media strategy in an original and compelling way using 'play' and fun to capture the audience's imagination'.
This is Mates most intensive marketing campaign in twelve years. Outside of the websites and online advertising, the marketing mix includes new packaging and marques, advertising, street stencils, fly posters, magazine inserts and public relations.
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