What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Sock off-limits campaign proves successful
Rogue Brand Agency has demonstrated that youth's ardent brand awareness can be used to create large followings, as demonstrated with its recent campaign for Durex on university campuses across South Africa.
University is reportedly the first time most teenagers can openly declare their sexual activity but it is also a time of very little privacy whether students live in residences, at home or in shared accommodation, they are seldom undisturbed.
Rogue CEO Brad Dessington says this was the insight behind the creation of Durex Door Socks: when there is a sock on the door, the room is off limits.
Brand conscious market
"We were also aware that this is a brand conscious market and, if designed in the right way, we could make the door socks sexy - essentially creating a fashion accessory that students would wear as a social statement - the thing great fashion brands do well.
"So we created socks that you could hang on your door or simply hang with your friends. We designed the socks in such a way that a Durex tag peeks brazenly out of the backs of students shoes."
Rogue launched the socks at the University of Johannesburg with 5000 pairs during an educational activation and immediately created thousands of walking billboards with demand outstripping supply - an instant fashion statement.
Reinforcing what students already know
"Much of the success of the activation relied on us reinforcing what students already know about Durex through a message that they actually want to see and talk about."
"The approach of the agency in general is to create communication that audiences want to engage with, essentially communication that they are attracted because the message are no longer wallpaper - they, in themselves have value," he concludes.
