Durex: Baby App

Making the consequence tangible, not the lecture louder

In consumer health marketing, the hardest problems are rarely about information. They are about motivation in the moment. This Durex idea is a clean example of turning a behavior barrier into an experience.

Condoms are a downer. So how does one convince guys to put it on, and make Durex the favored choice.

Using the iPhone, Nicolai Villads, Peter Ammentorp and Raul Montenegro created what is called the Durex Baby application for the iPhone.

How the Durex Baby app worked as a behavioral nudge

The mechanism was simple. If the barrier is that protection feels like a mood killer, shift attention to what happens without it.

The app simulated the realities of having a baby, using the phone as a constant companion device. It turned an abstract risk into a persistent, personal experience that could be felt rather than explained.

Why simulation can change decisions faster than persuasion

Most messaging about safe sex competes with optimism bias. People assume consequences happen to someone else.

A simulation reduces that distance. It makes “later” feel like “now,” and it reframes the trade-off. Short-term inconvenience versus long-term responsibility. When the consequence feels immediate and specific, the decision calculus changes.

The intent behind building it for Future Lions

The app was created for the Future Lions 2010 competition organized by digital agency AKQA and the Cannes Lions Advertising festival.

The business intent is clear. Use mobile to translate a sensitive topic into a playful but pointed interaction that can travel socially and be discussed without heavy moralizing, while keeping the brand associated with the responsible choice.

What to steal from this idea

  • Turn abstract risk into felt experience. Simulation can outperform warnings when the audience tunes out lectures.
  • Use the device people always carry. Mobile is effective when the behavior change depends on everyday moments.
  • Reframe the trade-off. Move attention from short-term friction to long-term consequence in a way people can grasp instantly.
  • Make it discussable. Playful interaction can open conversation on topics people avoid in direct language.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Durex Baby app?

An iPhone app concept that simulates the realities of having a baby to encourage safer choices and reduce resistance to using condoms.

What was the core mechanism?

Behavioral reframing through simulation. The phone delivers an ongoing experience that makes the consequence of not using protection feel immediate.

Why does this approach work better than a warning for some audiences?

Because it reduces optimism bias. People are more likely to change behavior when the consequence feels personal and present, not distant and theoretical.

What business goal does it serve for Durex?

Positioning the brand as the responsible default choice by shifting the decision from mood-based resistance to consequence-based clarity.

What is the main takeaway for marketers?

If persuasion is failing, design an experience that makes the outcome feel real, then let the audience reach the conclusion themselves.

Kaiak: The Online Banner You Could Smell

A banner that refuses to stay “just digital”

Everyone loves cool ad executions, but some are clearly advertising for advertising people. This one shows up at exactly the right time. Award-show season.

The work comes out of Brazil for Kaiak, Natura’s men’s fragrance. Kaiak has been reformulated, and the brief is simple but brutal. How do you sell a new scent online when the one thing people want to do is smell it?

Click the banner. Get the scent.

ID/TBWA solves it by building the missing sense into the media placement itself. Custom hardware is attached to computers in lan houses (cyber cafés) across Brazil. A special banner appears on the browser start page and reads, “The best selling men’s fragrance in the country just changed. Want to try it? Click this banner. It’s scented.”

When someone clicks, a scented strip physically emerges from the attached device. The digital impression turns into a real sample in the moment where “try” normally breaks down online.

In Brazilian urban markets where lan houses function as high-traffic digital hubs, turning a cyber café PC into a sampling machine creates mass trial without needing retail testers.

Why it lands: the medium becomes the product experience

The reason it works is not novelty alone. It removes the biggest barrier in fragrance e-commerce. Confidence. Instead of asking the viewer to imagine a scent, it lets them verify it immediately. The click is not a promise. It is the delivery mechanism.

The business intent: accelerate trial for a reformulated bestseller

This is a trial engine dressed as a banner. The goal is to reduce hesitation around change, create fresh talk value around “it’s different now”, and push people toward purchase with a sensory proof point that normal digital formats cannot provide.

What to steal if you want digital to do something physical

  • Identify the missing sense. If the product relies on touch, smell, or taste, do not pretend pixels can replace it.
  • Build a credible “try now” moment. Sampling only works when the action and the reward are tightly coupled.
  • Choose distribution points with dwell time. Cyber cafés, waiting rooms, and shared devices can behave like miniature retail networks.
  • Keep the instruction brutally simple. The banner copy does not explain the tech. It explains the outcome.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the “scented banner” for Kaiak?

An online banner placed on cyber café computers that dispenses a physical scented strip when the viewer clicks, enabled by custom hardware attached to the PC.

Why build hardware for a banner campaign?

Because fragrance requires sampling. The hardware turns a digital click into immediate product trial, removing the biggest barrier to buying scent online.

What is the core mechanism?

“Try now” is built into the media unit. The banner instruction is simple, and the click triggers a physical delivery moment that proves the claim.

What does this teach about selling “sensory” products digitally?

If touch, smell, or taste drives purchase confidence, you need a credible bridge to real-world experience, not just better copy or imagery.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

Identify the missing sense, then engineer a sampling moment where action and reward are tightly coupled and instantly legible.

Travel back in time with QR codes

QR Codes are now being used to preserve graffiti for posterity by photographing the graffiti before it is removed. After the graffiti has been cleaned off by the local authorities or building owner, a QR Code is placed in the exact location which leads to the original image of the graffiti. In this way a mobile phone with a QR-Code Reader can be used to travel back in time.