Background
This campaign was aimed at men and boys, asking them to take a stand against prostitution and human trafficking as a form of violence against women. Research showed that less than 10% of Irish men buy sex. The brand We Don’t Buy It spoke directly to the campaign aims; that we, the majority of men, don’t buy sex, and we, the majority of men, don’t buy the lies that allow it to flourish.
Strategy
We started by asking why some men use prostitutes. While the simple answer is sex, research shows it really comes down to a commodification of the purchase of sex particularly on-line with explanations like “she enjoys it” absolving behaviour. Our strategy challenged this justification, but in a positive and empowering way – not preachy, not moralistic. We believed the only thing that could influence men is men themselves: the power of us as the voice of the campaign.
Creative
Creatives were simple and stark, based around realistic testimonies from women and girls exploited by the justifications and men doing the justification. Against this, the campaign tone and call to action messages were carefully crafted to ensure that they articulated and captured, the voice of the majority, the voice of reason, the voice of collective and positive responsibility. In all creatives, the message that the significant majority of men never buy sex was central.
Media
The budget for the campaign was less than €100,000 and the media used was a mixture of PR and advertising and included PPE ads – Twitter, Facebook, partnerships with Joe.ie, Lad Bible - readers survey, editorials, posts and take-overs, MPUs and Leaderboard. Strategic OOH included telephone boxes and transport sites. National PR media was used extensively.
Results
This was a low-weight campaign. However, the increase in awareness was a high 9%, starting from a pre-campaign awareness level of 8% to a post-campaign awareness of 17%. Awareness was higher among men (10%) and in Dublin (10%), where there was a greater concentration of campaign activity. On social media there were over 2.5 million impressions over the 3-week campaign, resulting in over 3,000 visits to the campaign website WeDontBuyIt.ie (0.11% CTR). In addition, there was widespread, quality PR coverage.
