To market Huntsman secretly and successfully they had to be very tactical and specific on their choices of media.
To trick hunters when marketing Huntsman – they exploited all the media channels most relevant to hunters and used a tonality that they were familiar with through these channels.
Social media endorsements by influencers in the hunting community,
hand outs at popular hunting expos, and tactical use of web-banners, film and direct mailers to target hunters all played a crucial role.
Background
After the murder of Cecil the Lion by hunter Walter Palmer – the world was very angry with recreational hunters. PETA wanted to orchestrate a gesture that would generate some much-needed humor around the situation, reinforce their stance towards recreational hunting and highlight to the world that hunting is passed on from generation-to-generation.
PETA developed a brand of condoms called Huntsman.
They had a hidden agenda – to encourage hunters to stop reproducing.
They secretly and successfully marketed Huntsman across the world with a digitally lead, integrated campaign that exploited the most relevant media channels to hunters.
Strategy
To make Huntsman as believable as possible PETA sought to emulate popular hunting brands when developing the branding, packaging, design and media channels to distribute Huntsman. They also developed relationships with hunting influencers and got their feedback to make Huntsman as authentic as possible.
Execution
A film, web banners, and a website were developed to generate awareness around Huntsman Condoms.
In addition we seeded the product with social influencers within the hunting community and mailed out hundreds of Huntsman condoms to infamous hunters and influencers including Walter Palmer and Donald Trump’s sons.
Finally – we snuck into the world’s biggest hunting expo – The Great American Outdoor show and handed hundreds out to unsuspecting hunters.
Result
The prank was revealed on the 14th April 2016 and generated 378,000 views – leading to massive press coverage world wide, which yielded (x) of free media.
More importantly it gave the world the chance to mock recreational hunters, kept the issue of such an abhorrent activity in the public eye, and encouraged all to consider that it’s perhaps better not to teach your children how to hunt.
Agency: MullenLowe Singapore
Executive Creative Director: Erick Rosa
Art Directors: Fabio Santos, Martin Coppola
Copy: Guy Lewis
Production: Jonathan Gerard
Account team: Gonzalo Olivera, Fan Yang, Cara Fong
Editor: Adam Snyder
Illustrator: Natasha Hellegouarch
Animation: Emoxis
Sound design: Neon
Web design: Leandro Reis