Astroglide is a personal lubricant brand, promoting the message of open exploration in a judgment-free environment. As we worked to develop their 2018 summer ad campaign, we began our creative brainstorm with a simple but not untrue thought: “sex is like a mini vacation.” But how did we arrive at this idea, and where did we take it? Read on to find out more about Red Door’s “Sexcation” destination campaign for Astroglide, and how we developed its strategy and creative concept.
With this creative update, we wanted to encourage people to buy and use Astroglide products now, with a simple, true-to-the-core message that would hit home for a wide audience. Our strategic planning team turned to a handful of data sources—national surveys on sexual attitudes, conversations with people about sex, social listening, and even memes (memes are life at its realest)—to get to the heart of people’s thinking and desires around sex.
Other brands in the lubricant space have started to associate their products and sex with loftier aims: attaching them to self-care, self-love, sexual wellness and health, the success of relationships. All fair, admirable points. But based on what we saw in the data, there was a clear opportunity to connect to a more fundamental human truth: sex as pleasure. Pleasure is self-love, care, empowerment. It’s becoming less and less taboo, as the notion of, “it’s okay to want to like who you are, and enjoy being who you are,” takes hold culturally. It’s okay to want your own pleasure—and the primary payoff for lubricant use is that it makes sex more pleasurable and fun. With that insight, the strategy was clear: to express clearly and convincingly that, when it comes to sex, Astroglide will help you enjoy yourself more.
From there, the creative team got to work. As we developed the Sexcation campaign within the framework of the strategic direction, the numbers bore out: Americans are taking fewer vacations, and they’re having less sex. It seemed fitting to use a summertime campaign to encourage consumers to think about sex as a mini vacation, with Astroglide as their means to an even better time. Astroglide: Your ticket to pleasure.
The team drew inspiration from classic Pan-Am ads and vintage travel posters to stoke a nostalgia for exotic travel that consumers would instantly recognize and relate to. We worked together to create tongue-in-cheek names for sexual destinations we’d all like to visit.
We think the results speak for themselves, and the travel poster-style creative—with versatility for both digital and traditional out-of-home ads—evoke a desire to take time to explore new horizons and landscapes with Astroglide.