Durex & Havas WW London Launch First Ever Radio Ad You Can See

To mark the launch of its new UK e-commerce site, Durex is releasing the first ever radio ad that can be seen as well as heard.

The ad, created by Havas Worldwide London, harnesses cutting-edge dual screen technology to allow people to see characters and visuals on their mobile or tablet which reflect what can be heard in the radio ad.

Consumers who download the Durex Explore app will be able to see an exclusive video that is synched with the airing of the groundbreaking spot, called “Behind Closed Doors”.

The viewable radio ad will air on Absolute and Planet Rock stations on Friday pm, February 13th.  

Listeners will be reminded at regular intervals to download the app in order to see the film as the radio ad plays. They will be instructed to hold up their devices to their radios with the app open as the ad airs to view it. You can listen to the first radio ad instructions here, and the subsequent ones during the day here.

The app works by using a mobile or tablet device’s microphone to detect the part of the radio spot that is playing and synchronises the visuals to screen to the exact corresponding point in the ad. 

Users can jump straight into the corresponding visuals at any point in the radio ad and have the two ads run instantly in parallel. The radio ad cues to visuals down to the second, creating the world’s first radio ad that you can see. 

The watchable ad will show couples taken to the heights of passion and discovering new pleasures with the new range of sex toys available to buy from the new Durex E-commerce site durex.co.uk .

Alasdair Graham, Global Executive Creative Director RB at Havas Worldwide London said: “Technology now allows us to watch radio on our second screen.  So we thought, let's make a radio ad where we don't ask people to imagine a picture that they don't want to miss out on.  This time, we're going to show it to them."

The ad follows Durex’s launch of the world’s first dual screen synchronised film last year- also created by Havas Worldwide London.