In 2015, HIV was on the rise for young gay guys in Edmonton, yet they weren’t talking about it. They saw HIV as an old issue, relevant to the 80s rather than today. On top of that, our audience often ignored traditional public health campaigns.
To really get the attention of young gay men, messaging needed to be created that the community could own. To achieve this, key messaging for the campaign was developed alongside and tested with the HIV Edmonton community.
The language needed to be fun and topical. We couldn’t flinch with the language and imagery we used—and it needed to be embedded within the community.
With just a four-week campaign period that was highly targeted to 4000 young men who have sex with men in Edmonton, HIVtonight.com received over 5000 visits. HIV Edmonton reported an incredibly positive response from the many members of the target audience that contacted them as a result of the campaign and microsite.
The site was designed as a series of interactive widgets. By making the information engaging and bite-sized, users were drawn through the site to gather a variety of key communication points.
The site included amusing animations, a fun quiz, and risqué interactive game. Explicit images, conversational language, and sexual innuendo all worked to share serious information in an entertaining way.
