In this week’s Social Media Spotlight, we will take a look at Trojan Brand Condoms

If anyone should understand social media, it should be Trojan condoms. Trojan’s target audience oozes social media. Facebook. YouTube. Bebo. All are the stomping grounds of the 18-24 sexually active college student. Although many might argue that Trojan should be targeting a much younger audience, Trojan is set with the college crowd.

Furthermore, sex sells (especially to twenty-somethings just finding their freedom) and what is Trojan marketing/promoting if not a greater abundance of sex?

Unfortunately, Trojan is not just marketing increased copulation but also promoting sexual responsibility. Promiscuity and responsibility are rarely partners in crime (bed?), but for Trojan, who has the marketing positioning, it is all about increasing the amount of condom use.

Akin to cigarette companies battling the “smoking is relaxing” message while funding Truth’s “cigarette companies are lying to you and cigarettes are killing you” message, Trojan promotes sex while bombarding us with the fears of STI’s & pregnancy – acting more as a health advocacy company than a consumption advocates.

This strategy shows in their social media efforts:

Trojan has jam-packed the company’s Facebook page with information and contests for college students to take on the challenge of being sexually responsible.

With words such as “sexual health crisis”, “take the pledge”, and “get involved” scattered throughout the page, Trojan has cemented their position as the responsible sex company on Facebook. They even have a How Evolved Are You? quiz and Evolve One Evolve All microsite.

And, this is where the company fails.

Trojan has a pittlesome fan base on Facebook with a little over 7,000 fans (in comparison, Playboy has over 1 million fans), and Trojan is missing the conversation on their Facebook page. Where are the discussions? The interactivity?

Is it on their microsite? Doesn’t really look like it. With what looks like less than 90 videos submitted, my guess is that Trojan spent way too much for this marketing campaign. This becomes even more apparent looking at their YouTube channel.

The channel has one (yes, one) subscriber and the top videos only have a few thousand views. That is fairly abysmal for a top brand on YouTube. A video on cooking oatmeal asparagus cookies has nearly three times the views of Trojan’s top video.

These are pretty clear signals that Trojan is missing the mark in terms of social media marketing.

My recommendation is to change up the message to appeal to the social media crowd. Rather than focus on the responsibility aspect of condoms, I suggest focusing on the recklessness that condoms allow. Rather than instill fear with STI’s and teen pregnancy rates, instill bravado with reckless sexual abandon.

Team up with the innovative folks at HungryManTV and Sir Rod and showcase the escapades of a dirty, washed-up rockstar (think puppet version of Bill Nighy character from Love Actually) who has lived a life of multiple partners free of venereal disease & crying little ones thanks largely to condoms.

Promote the fun while diminishing the responsibility aspect. Take the Axe approach.

With social media, where companies are entering their customer’s space, companies should focus on providing the audience with what they are looking for rather than pushing out their internal message.

Companies are essentially invading the social media space. It would be best to come in with goodies.