Assignment: The project and its goals

Following the continued successes of the four Ending HIV campaigns by Frost*collective to date, ACON asked us to enter into a four-way pitch for the fifth installment of the campaign. Called Ending HIV 2.0, ACON wanted a refreshed, high personalised and integrated approach to include outdoor, print and social media with the overarching campaign objective, like those before it, to end HIV transmission in NSW by 2020.

Approach: Creative process and solution

The creative strategy’s objective is to drive engagement and promote active involvement thereby prompting behavioural change. Personalisation is central to campaign’s success. The word ‘I’M’ added to ‘ENDING HIV’ becomes ‘I’M ENDING HIV’ takes the Ending HIV narrative to a very personal level, allowing each individual to own this cause and encourage them to act on it.

By championing the personal experiences of 12 gay men who are all volunteers from different ages, culturally diverse backgrounds and sexual practices, we’ve delivered evocative and persuasive story telling using real portraits of male gay representatives from the community. The idea also builds on the high level of awareness around the landscape of HIV while strategically highlighting the long-term objective to end HIV transmission in NSW by 2020.

High recall of the creative elements of prior campaigns including the brackets and equations are used across the campaign to ensure overall consistency and to evolve the messaging. Subjects include an Aboriginal man, a transgender young man and a couple from the NSW community. Their portraits and stories are used across all campaign communications, which include print, outdoor, social and digital.

Results: Success of project and/or the client’s reaction

Ending HIV 2.0 has been designed to roll out across three stages with the first addressing the personal barriers and benefits associated with testing. The four-month outdoor campaign starts with billboards in train stations, digital billboards and street posters in Sydney metropolitan locations, with regional centres Wollongong and Newcastle also getting a run. The campaign continues through to the 2016 Sydney Mardi Gras Festival.

The final outcome is a comprehensive campaign, integrating traditional and digital media channels to communicate the core message to change behavior and mindsets in the community for regular testing as the push to end HIV by 2020 continues.

Commenting on the campaign, Yves Calmette, Principal Planner, ACON Health, said, “Each Frost*collective campaign brings us closer to winning our fight to end HIV transmission. This is an exciting installment for the cause because of the personal stories it shares.

“We have no doubts that this campaign will be one of the strongest rally-cries to effectively and successfully change behavior and mindsets around regular testing to ultimately stamp HIV out by 2020,” he said.

Statistics show the momentum has continued from the last campaign indicating campaign success weeks before the campaign concludes.

TEST OFTEN CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE - FIRST BURST (01/12/15 - 28/12/15)

Test Often (4 week period)
Site visits 20,806
Page views 56,115
Duration (avg) 1 min and 36 seconds
Bounce rate 14.07%
Avg pages/visit 2.7

Treat Early (8 wk period - last campaign)
Site visits 39,762
Page views 53,658
Duration (avg) 45 seconds
Bounce rate 86%
Avg pages/visit 1.35

VIDEOS VIEWS: 5 out of the 11 videos for Test Often have been released, generating over 100K views to date, compared to 84K views for the Treat Early (Undetectable) video.

Test Often
Total Video Views 105,393

Treat Early
Total Video Views 84,306

HASHTAGS: Both Ending HIV hashtags reached over 84K impressions via Twitter and Instagram.

Hashtag #endinghiv
Twitter 19,508
Instagram 25,146

Hashtag #endinghiv2020
Twitter 18,956
Instagram 21,227

In addition to the significant increase in site traffic and overall digital engagement, a considerable amount of positive feedback continues to be received from the a[TEST] team. Many clients who haven’t tested for a long period of time are choosing to get tested having seen the campaign. Additionally, the testing site, a[Test], on Oxford Street, Sydney recorded January as its busiest month ever.