Arteaga & Arteaga - San Juan, Puerto Rico Arteaga & Arteaga, Awarded For Groundbreaking HIV Awareness Campaign The "Not Knowing It" or "No Saberlo” campaign, developed for client Bristol Myers Squibb by Puerto Rican ad agency Arteaga & Arteaga, has been recognized with multiple advertising awards throughout the Caribbean, South and Central America and Europe. The most recent prize was handed to Arteaga's creative team this past April in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Festival Iberoamericano de la Publicidad, also known as FIAP. The campaign took home the Silver Prize for Innovative Media Use in the Mixed Media category. The "Not Knowing It" campaign was meant to raise awareness about the HIV virus and the importance of early detection through testing.  It has been singled out throughout the advertising world because of the particular approach used to capture the attention of the client's target market: the very message-saturated, sexually-active youth.  For this, the Puerto Rican agency used an integrated marketing strategy that combined traditional and alternative media and centered the campaign's creative at an extremely particular, eye-catching image. To generate attention, Arteaga's creative team gave the campaign a fashionista air that worked well with the objective market.  They produced t-shirts with this eye-catching image and distributed them through the hip places most frequently visited by the Puerto Rican youth.  Without giving away the meaning behind the design, the agency managed to generate added publicity through fashion-inspired printed pieces and product integration in hip TV programs targeted to the target market. “We generated an impressive amount of word of mouth and generated great expectation amongst the target market. No one knew what the design meant, they simply thought it was the latest fashion trend to hit the island,” said Laura Figueroa, Arteaga's Associate Creative Director.

It wasn't until the week following the viral effort that the public was alerted to the meaning of the campaign through a TV spot. In the commercial, a young man agrees to wear the T-shirt and is excited about the garment's look and feel. When asked if he could explain the graphic in the shirt, he says that it looks to him as a symbol of planet Earth or nature.  He is then made aware that the symbol is actually an enlarged microscopic image of the HIV virus, which provokes a stunned response from the subject. “You could have it and not know it".  "Take a test and do way with doubt", reads the ad's subtitles. Through print ads in the main newspapers in the days following the TV spot, the public was invited to participate in a series of HIV testing throughout the island sponsored by Bristol Myers-Squibb and prompted to visit the interactive website designed.

The tests were held in almost 70 locations throughout Puerto Rico.  A total of 9,343 tests were administered, which signified a 60.2 percent increase in participation over the previous year.  Bristol's investment in the campaign totaled only $110,000 and, thanks to the creative twist driving the event, they managed to generate $102,000 in free publicity for the brand and the cause being promoted.

At the Certamen de Publicidad Cúspide of the Puerto Rico Advertising Association, where 594 pieces competed this year, the made-for-Bristol TV commercial won Bronze in the Public Service Category, while the overall integrated campaign won the Gold.

In addition to being recognized by the Puerto Rican Cúspide panel and Argentinian-based FIAP, the campaign won Silver in the Festival Caribe in Panamá in March and positioned itself as a finalist in the Ojo de Iberoamérica, another important award forum in Argentina.

“It's a true honor to witness Puerto Rican talent being recognized at an International level, regardless of what field it's at,” said Juan Arteaga, Arteaga & Arteaga's president.  “Of course, it's even more humbling when that talent is part of our team and is bearing fruit for our clients, as well as our island's future generations."

Those interested in watching the campaign's "Not Knowing It" TV spot can log on to the following link: http://www.haztelaprueba.org.