Campaign Imminent: Durex taps new creative AOR, surpasses FY 2022 digital spend (Score 20)

Sales Lead: Durex recently selected McCann Worldgroup as its new AOR.

• This shift replaces incumbent Havas, which retained some of Durex's work outside of the States.
• It expands the relationship between Durex and McCann; McCann already worked on brands such as Lysol and Enfamil (meaning that its leadership is En-familiar with the brand).
• McCann's global brand guidance and local brand activation efforts will involve a global-to-local brand playbook.
  • They will also develop more distinctive brand assets comprising marketing campaigns, brand platform, and tool kits for Durex.
• The brand will likely:
  • Launch a new campaign
  • Ramp up experiential initiatives
  • Implement other strategy shifts
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Make additional roster shifts
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennial men

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Durex hasn't utilized national TV since allocating around $13.4k in 2021.
  • 2021 ad programming: Its 2021 commercials targeted Gen-X watching shows such as Shipping Wars, Intervention, QAnon: The Search for Q, Top Gear, and Killer Kids.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Since the beginning of 2022, the brand has spent approximately $401.3k on digital ads, already 5% more than the approximately $382.6k spent in all of 2022.
  • YTD data: Durex has earned roughly 55.1m digital impressions YTD, 51% via Facebook ads, 48% via Instagram ads, and 1% via desktop display ads.
  • Last year: The brand's estimated full-year 2022 spend, $382.6k, reached only about a third of that of $1.1m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The brand utilizes digital, TikTok, Facebook, and online video (via Youtube Android and Youtube.com) ads.
  • Durex holds planning conversations in Q4 and buying conversations in Q1.
  • It has also started leaning more heavily on sponsorships read more here.
  • As you can tell from the video above, Durex works with influencers such as rapper That Kid CG.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Reach out soon to see if Durex's parent company, Reckitt Benckiser (RB), seeks additional new brand-specific agency partners now that it's found one.
  • An advantage will go to those able to further set this condom and lubricant brand apart from its main US rival, Trojan.
• Current agency roster (Durex brand):
  • ​​​​​​​McCann Worldgroup: Creative AOR (July 2023)
  • VaynerMedia: Creative AOR
  • Zenith Media: Media AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix.