HIV awareness, and HIV testing, has been on a steady decline for a long time, especially among younger gay men. And HIV infections are increasing in this group. With Stockholm Pride as the focus, our objective was to encourage young MSM (men who have sex with men) to get tested for HIV, as well as to increase HIV awareness. We set out to create a piece of content that could be embraced by, and travel within, the specific subculture of the target audience. Previous campaigns had all built on scare tactics, creating an opposition between sex positivity and HIV testing – getting tested was what boring good boys did. We wanted to convey that HIV testing is an act of love and respect, and we wanted it conveyed by someone with credibility among young gay men.

We asked house music producer, magazine publisher and nightclub boss Petter Wallenberg to create a song with us, about how getting tested for HIV is an act of love and respect. “Love Yourself – Test Yourself” was the result, together with a visual identity and a video, all inspired by the trendy early 90’s look. The release of the song created a massive impact across national and local media, including a segment in national TV. Even Perez Hilton, promoted the song. The reach was 18+ million impressions, or more than 2 impressions per citizen of Sweden. The song opened Stockholm Pride festival, with tens of thousands in the audience. And HIV testing increased significantly.

After some research, we asked house music producer, magazine publisher and nightclub boss Petter Wallenberg to create a song with us, about how getting tested for HIV is an act of love and respect. “Love Yourself – Test Yourself” was the result, together with a visual identity and a video, all inspired by the trendy early 90’s look. The song title became the campaign message, and the release of the song the main channel for the campaign. The track was released across YouTube, Spotify and iTunes, together with a concerted PR effort across mainstream as well as “gay” media.

The launch created a massive impact, getting picked up by all major national news media titles as well as lots of local press. Petter Wallenberg and a spokesperson from the client appeared on national TV, in the longest segment about HIV awareness in years. Even Perez Hilton, with a cool 6+ million followers, promoted the song. The reach across “official” media (excluding blogs, twitter…) was 18+ million impressions, or more than 2 impressions per citizen of Sweden.

The peak of the launch was when the song opened Stockholm Pride festival, with tens of thousands in the audience. The week after, the song was the 3rd most streamed in Sweden, and by mid August, the video had been played 85000 times on YouTube. Most importantly, HIV testing increased by about 40%.