Condom brand Durex tapped into the e-sports culture in China and used clever messaging to help navigate advertising restrictions and generate significant buzz on social media. With its "go for a round" messaging, the brand not only vastly increased its social media audience and generated a significant bump in sales but also integrated itself into the fabric of the e-sports culture, becoming an intrinsic part of this dynamic community.
While the rest of the world was well into its re-opening phase in 2022, China was suffering the worst of the pandemic, with entire cities going into sudden lockdown for weeks. Needless to say, people weren't having much sex, causing a decline in the overall market of the condom category.
So, when China finally entered its re-opening phase going into 2023, Durex knew it had to seize this opportunity to reinvigorate the lives of its customers and re-enhance the brand's social equity and overall sales.
Durex identified e-sports as a platform expansive enough to align with its ambitious goals and maximize impact. The brand positioned itself as the ideal player in the condom category to collaborate with e-sports, a platform boasting over 450 million fans and growing. However, leveraging this sponsorship presented challenges due to China's notoriously stringent regulations around referencing sex in advertisements.
Durex's primary target audience comprised of men between ages 18 and 34, a demographic that predominantly engages in social activities through the medium of e-sports. This group not only demonstrated a keen interest in this rapidly growing industry but also showed a willingness to invest in it. In fact, more than half of these individuals were prepared to pay for content related to e-sports. This highlighted their deep-rooted passion for the gaming world and underscored the potential for brands like Durex to tap into this enthusiasm.
Durex started the new e-sports season with different uses of the words "protect" and "safeguard" in the context of League of Legends games, playfully keeping the brand top of mind for the audience's other "protection" needs.
The brand then hijacked the popular gaming phrase "go for a round?", usually used to ask friends if they wanted to go for a round of League. Durex subverted that universally known phrase, turning it into an innuendo that meant going for a more intimate kind of round, one in which Durex could protect you, essentially turning the phrase into the "Netflix and Chill" of the gaming community.
Driven by its aspiration to create a significant presence in social media conversations, rather than merely focusing on brand exposure, Durex strategically allocated 80 percent of its investments toward enhancing the brand's social media footprint. This approach underscored a commitment to fostering meaningful interactions and building stronger connections with the Durex audience.
To maximize awareness and ensure it effectively reached the target audience, Durex first launched its key visuals with the slogans using the "protect" and "safeguard" innuendos during the initial joint announcement of our League of Legends sponsorship on Weibo, the Twitter-like social platform with the largest reach.
Durex then seeded content across the main social platforms used by the gaming community, including Bilibili (the YouTube of China) and Hupu (the biggest e-sports forum in China), driving engagement and buzz among gamers and e-sports fans.
At the same time, Durex took over major League of Legends match livestreams, weaving the wordplay and innuendos into the various e-sports matches to keep "protection" top of mind for viewers.
Finally, at the height of the season — just before the League finals — Durex launched its brand video introducing the "go for a round" double entendre on tournament livestreams and across all socials to maximize impact.
The campaign exceeded all expectations, making Durex the real winner of the season:
Durex holds the distinction of being the first brand in its industry to forge a collaboration with e-sports events.
