Its still early in the year but this promotional campaign must be leading the way for a high impact promotional giveaway. The New York City Condom giveaway is a fine example of how to integrate promotional products into the broader marketing mix and drive home CAUSE realted message. NYC already distribute free condoms at a rate of about 1.5 million monthly but this is how they got their latest exposure.

The first step was of course PR and what better way to do it than to commission a “consumer generated” type competition for the package design. The next step - organise a massive give-away promotion on a day borne purely from consumer marketing - Valentine’s Day. The city handed out about 150,000 rubbers. The subway-themed condoms also appeared on the front page of AM New York a free daily paper distributed at many of the same places where the city was distributing condoms originally. It also got featured on the home page of the New York Times and countless other places. That’s massive cut-through for the free promotion. Check out the online support for the campaign here at: nyccondom.org