How National Pride Made New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes
When The New Zealand Herpes Foundation and Motion Sickness launched a stigma-breaking campaign on Global Herpes Awareness Day in October 2024, they were realistic when it came to how many people they could reach.
Their goal to ‘make New Zealand the best place in the world to have herpes’ involved educating audiences with a content series about the virus presented by prominent Kiwis like Graham Henry and Ashley Bloomfield.
Aimed at reducing herpes stigma, the campaign highlighted education over shame, using a Herpes Stigma Index leaderboard to encourage engagement. With 10,776 hours of content viewed, 12.7 million impressions, and 86% of course participants said they now feel comfortable discussing herpes openly and helping others.
Speaking with LBB’s Tom Loudon, Motion Sickness ECD Sam Stuchbury shares his delight at the campaign’s runaway success, plus discusses humour as a tool for taboo conversations, and the international fallout of the campaign.
LBB> What inspired the concept of making New Zealand ‘The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes’, and how did the idea evolve into the multi-part online course?
Sam> The client described it as the impossible brief. They've been trying to crack it for several years, essentially breaking the stigma around the herpes virus. 30% of people in New Zealand have depressive or suicidal thoughts when they're diagnosed with herpes, so much so that the client established a helpline where people would call up to talk to a counsellor.
We knew there was a real problem with stigma, and we asked, “Could we put a positive spin on this? What would be the best place in the world to have herpes?” That would be somewhere where there is no stigma, no shame around it, and everyone is pretty well educated about it.
LBB> The campaign takes a humorous and light-hearted approach to a sensitive topic. How did you balance humour with the serious goal of reducing stigma and educating the public?
Sam> It is a really useful device, particularly for Kiwis. Culturally, New Zealanders and Australians use humour to disarm and talk about touchy subjects. So we knew humour was a valuable tool for us to make people want to engage in this course, hide some of the educators within humour, and break down the barriers.
We felt that this online de-stigmatisation course was a cool concept, but medical stuff is long and boring, and no one reads it.
We could condense that into a six-part video series, making this online course viral. Blending that line between education advertising and entertainment was the goal.
LBB> How did you select the all-star cast of New Zealand celebrities for the campaign, and what role did their personalities play in its success?
Sam> You wouldn’t expect any of the stars to be involved with a herpes campaign, and getting them the website to communicate the information would always be interesting.
I would have watched it just because the casting is so random. One of the hardest things behind the scenes was getting people on board – we had a spreadsheet of about 70 potential people and everyone was saying no.
It was Graham Henry who broke through. He loved the idea, the concept, and said yes. Having him on board gave it the credibility that helped get everyone else on board.
LBB> Were there any surprising or unexpected reactions from the public, and how did you handle any potential backlash or scepticism?
Sam> Honestly, we've been positively overwhelmed by it.
People have been calling it an “unusual tourist campaign” and having a bit of a laugh about it, but I think because it isn’t addressed globally, people genuinely didn’t realise the numbers. 80% of New Zealanders will contract the virus.
A lot of people who live with herpes were really happy with the campaign, which stressed information positively and with humour. The foundation was overwhelmed with emails and text messages from people who had recently been diagnosed with herpes who thought their lives were over. They thought they'd have to finish their relationships – then they saw the campaign and could talk about it.
LBB> The campaign achieved over 12.7 million impressions and 10,776 hours of content consumption. Were these metrics aligned with your expectations, or did they exceed your goals?
Sam> Way above expected. It was a limited media spend, being a charity campaign.
Media suppliers came on board and gave us pro bono placements, but it wasn't anything compared to big campaigns.
What caused the campaign's virality was being picked up by so many media publications globally and in New Zealand, starting a really big conversation. If we could impact Auckland and some of New Zealand and get some conversation going, that would be a real win.
What made the campaign go off was the leaderboard's competitiveness. New Zealand started out on the website at number 9, based on our research on the stigma. Because it had so much global pickup, we had Australia, Sweden, and the UK actively competing on this leaderboard, trying to get their country the number one.
LBB> How do you plan to sustain the momentum created by this campaign, and will there be follow-up initiatives to reinforce the message?
Sam> We've had some conversations with the client already, but we've got to number one now. Now, we need to defend the title. People are still doing the course, even though we're not promoting it.
86% of people who completed the course said they now feel comfortable discussing herpes openly. Leaving the board to one side, we’re really pleased that so many more people are motivated to remove the stigma.
LBB> How do you think this campaign has influenced your approach to tackling sensitive or taboo topics in advertising?
Sam> There are two things.
The first thing was the unexpected marrying of comedy and a fairly taboo subject – it’s the thing that made it cut through. If we'd gone with a really serious approach to educating, no one would click on the head or want to engage with it. It's just too serious and scary. The comedy and the talent were the hook that got people engaged.
The second is national pride. Because we wanted New Zealand to be the best place in the world to have herpes, there was something for people to rally behind. It gave people a reason to get involved beyond their personal situation.
One of the most significant pieces of ammunition of the campaign is the word ‘herpes’. You see herpes on a billboard, and you want to know what's going on behind it so you'll notice the OOH.
