Effortless Boyfriend

Background

Tampax Compak was launching a product upgrade that featured a smooth outer layer, making the product almost effortless to use. Arc Worldwide’s challenge was to inform consumers of this unique improvement online in a way that was fun and engaging whilst still being subtly educational.

Idea

If Tampax Compak can take the effort out of having a period, why can’t they take the effort out of boys too? And that’s exactly what they did - by creating the Tampax Compak ‘Effortless Boyfriend’. The Tampax Effortless Boyfriend (www.effortlessboyfriend.co.uk) is a virtual beau who sends emails, gives presents and generally helps make his girlfriends feel good about themselves. Girls can go online and choose their effortless boyfriend from a number of options - everything from shy bookish Will to wild rocker Travis. He then sends her a series of confidence-boosting messages that are personalised as well as tailored to his personality.

The boyfriends also give her ‘Effortless Guides’, aimed at making her everyday life as easy as possible - telling her things she needs to know in a simple palatable way. What better way to describe the offside rule than through a scenario set in a shoe shop where somebody’s forgotten their purse? If she gets tired of her effortless boyfriend (which is, of course, every girl’s prerogative) then she can just go online, choose from a number of entertaining excuses, dump him and then pick another. And it’s not just her virtual love life that Tampax are aiding. The site offers users a number of tools to help make their own love lives effortless. She can send an email to a friend, telling her that she should be dumping her boyfriend and getting an effortless replacement, or even dump her real life boyfriend by e-card.

Results

Thousands of girls have visited the site and chosen themselves an effortless boyfriend. The website has been taken up by markets across Europe with the Belgians even creating an ‘Effortless Boyfriend’ TV show in conjunction with TMF (an affiliate of MTV).

Target Audience

Teenage girls

Our Thoughts

In the femcare market, the brands you choose when you’re a young teenager may very well be the brands you stay with for the rest of your life. So here’s Tampax talking to girls about the one thing that dominates their lives from 13 onwards. Boys. The ones you like don’t like you and the ones you find yucky keep coming on strong. Better to have an online boyfriend who is completely under control. (Sounds like a rehearsal for marriage.) An interesting campaign based on a real insight. Our only musings were on the style: doesn’t the cartoony look pitch it too young? Apparently not in Belgium where the idea has been adapted to a reality TV show.