Interesting article on how the government has been criticised following a new safe sex campaign aimed at youth.
Why?
The campaign cost GBP 250,000 and was called – “want respect? Use a condom”. It was a feature drama series called Thmbnls.
What went wrong?
According to the BBC only 5,576 mobile phone users have signed up to this in 4 months at an average cost of GBP 45 per subscriber.
What else
The 22 minute episodes feature a group of kids discussing sex and relationships.
What?
22 minutes? Yikes. On mobile? Yes. A 22 minute mobisode? Has the world gone bloody mad? The average length of a mobisode should be 2 minutes!
From the source article
Toby Beresford, commercial director of London-based social media agency Nudge, said he expected a much greater take-up.
He told the BBC: “With a quarter of a million pounds, I’d be looking for at least half a million people to sign-up.”
What we think?
Even Toby Beresford has got it wrong this time. The response rate based on the size of the content is about right. You would have seen super uptake if and ONLY if the mobile content was short, snappy and easy to digest.
There are 22 1-minute episodes. So, short and snappy, ideal for mobile.
Hmm. That didn’t read well in the original article – then I reckon that people talking just wasn’t compelling enough. Perhaps there should have been a stronger focus on how to put a condom on – where to buy – where to get them for free. I intend to sign-up for this and see if I see why it under-performed.