Poo for brew? Ad firm spurs colon cancer checks with beer giveaway campaign

If unicorns defecating and breaking wind offends you, cease studying this now.

It was the cross-promotion prospect of two manufacturers identified for such issues — Squatty Potty, a bathroom stool firm well-known for its viral video of unicorns doing their enterprise; and DuClaw Brewing Co., a Baltimore-based brewer that makes a bitter beer known as Unicorn Farts — that led to the most recent output from Richmond advert company Elevation, which turned all of it into an consciousness marketing campaign for colorectal well being.

Half beer giveaway, half product commercial and half tie-in with Colon Most cancers Consciousness Month, the marketing campaign — christened the Give a Crap Problem — gives a restricted version beer as motivation for getting a colon most cancers screening.

Individuals can join by midnight this Sunday to be eligible to win one in all 100 six-packs for sending a stool pattern to be checked utilizing an at-home testing equipment.

By Thursday morning, 24 hours after the marketing campaign went stay, greater than 1,700 individuals had signed up for the problem, and the campaign’s website had logged greater than 7,000 visits – all from pre-launch publicity and word-of-mouth from firm teasers.

And it began with Corey Lane, an account supervisor at Elevation, sitting in on a Baltimore advertising group webinar and catching wind that DuClaw was trying to accomplice with Squatty Potty to advertise its Bitter Me Unicorn Farts pilot batch – a sequence of brews impressed not by Squatty Potty however by a similar-named doughnut at Baltimore’s Diablo Doughnuts.

None of these corporations are purchasers of Elevation, however Lane noticed a possibility to tie all of them collectively as a professional bono profit for the nationwide Colon Most cancers Basis, which he had beforehand labored with on a mission.

Elevation’s Frank Gilliam, left, and Corey Lane.

“That was the ‘what,’” Lane mentioned, referring to the manufacturers’ cross-promotion. “However they wanted a ‘why,’ and I noticed that chance to slot in the Colon Most cancers Basis because the ‘why,’ by way of why our partnership made sense.”

“That’s one of many cool issues about this: all people concerned is working in good religion,” he mentioned. “Nobody has contracts with one another. We simply see this superior concept that all of it helps the Colon Most cancers Basis, and all of us dove in to make it occur.”

However first, he needed to promote the concept not solely to the businesses, which have been all sport, but additionally to Frank Gilliam and Aaron Dotson, his bosses at Elevation, an company identified for maybe extra family-friendly work such as its ads for Virginia Inexperienced, starring a Jack Russell Terrier, and its “Tuition Monster” spots for Virginia529.

“We mentioned that is the craziest, most superior thought ever, and if this works, we’ve acquired to get behind this,” Gilliam mentioned.

“It was such a pure factor that doesn’t occur fairly often, that connection of the totally different events. This was definitely an ideal storm of alternative, and naturally, this being Colon Most cancers Consciousness Month,” he mentioned. “And it’s the proper viewers too, to get individuals to consider this, as a result of the sooner you take a look at, the sooner it’s discovered and the extra treatable it’s.”

Colorectal most cancers is the second main reason behind most cancers deaths within the U.S., and Gilliam and Lane famous that it’s sometimes treatable early however deadly if left undetected.

Of those that signed up or visited the location because the launch, Lane mentioned analytics confirmed that a couple of third have been 45 or older, thought-about a high-risk vary for colon most cancers.

“So we’re reaching the appropriate individuals,” Lane mentioned Thursday. “After which, one other third is these youthful people who simply want to pay attention to it transferring ahead.”

Problem winners obtain a six-pack and a two-sided information card.

Added Gilliam: “This was only a nice alternative to supply some training on a critical topic in a enjoyable means. Clearly we’re doing this not just for the enjoyable of it, however we hope that individuals concentrate and get the message and we are able to remind them of the significance of this kind of healthcare.”

However oh did they’ve some enjoyable with this one, as Lane famous.

“So many poop jokes over the previous couple of months. Heaps of bathroom humor,” he mentioned, laughing.

“The great factor was that we had the precedent that was established from Squatty Potty, and even DuClaw – different common beers they put out like Soiled Little Freak and Candy Child Jesus. There was a tone established from the onset right here, and it gave us lots of latitude.”

Working with copywriter Brian Burton and up to date rent Chris Fullman, who dealt with net improvement, Gilliam conceptualized the web site and an explainer video that Squatty Potty produced. Elevation additionally produced advertising supplies for the random drawing, which is slated to be held in a couple of weeks.

These chosen obtain a six-pack of the restricted version beer – a graham-cracker-infused variation of Bitter Me Unicorn Farts known as “Thanks for Giving a Crap” – in addition to a Squatty Potty stool, an Everlywell FIT Colon Most cancers Screening Package, and an information card with extra on colon most cancers and prevention.

The restricted version beer supplied within the marketing campaign is a variation of DuClaw’s Unicorn Farts brew.

Donations for the beer are additionally accepted — what Burton coined the marketing campaign’s “poop-hole loophole” — although provides are certainly restricted, as solely 400 six-packs have been produced. Donations are a minimal of $85 and profit the Colon Most cancers Basis.

As of Thursday, Lane mentioned 22 individuals had made donations, elevating greater than $3,000 for the inspiration. As for the 1,717 contributors and counting who’ve signed as much as take the problem, Gilliam mentioned with fun, “What individuals will do for beer, proper?”

“It sounds bizarre to phrase it this manner, however that’s probably the greatest outcomes that we are able to hope for out of this,” Lane added, “that if somebody says, ‘Yeah, certain, I’ll poop in a field to get some free beer, that sounds enjoyable.’ However we really find yourself catching one thing that would save their lives. That’s kind of the silver lining to this complete factor, is that it does have a critical undertone.”

It’s additionally becoming that the marketing campaign lends itself to a lot lavatory humor, as Lane mentioned it appears like that’s the place it’s getting obtained.

“As we have been trying on the analytics, we realized {that a} actually excessive proportion of site visitors to the web site — 72 % — was really from a cellular system,” he mentioned. “So, in a case of artwork imitating life, most of those guests are in all probability becoming a member of from the bathroom.”