Background The Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), acting on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), has been implementing the central campaign GIB AIDS KEINE CHANCE (DON’T GIVE AIDS A CHANCE) in Germany since 1987. In recent years the number of STI cases has increased. The BZgA reacted to that by reorienting the central GIB AIDS KEINE CHANCE campaign and turning it into an integrated HIV/STI prevention campaign. In 2012 the protection campaign “mach’s mit - Wissen und Kondom”, was launched as the first integrated HIV/STI campaign in Germany.

Problem description At the time of this reorientation the campaign faced the challenge of communicating basic knowledge about STIs to the German public, while at the same time maintaining the high level of information relating to HIV. Neither people’s motivation to protect themselves by using condoms, nor the strong brands “GIB AIDS KEINE CHANCE” and “mach’s mit”, were to be weakened in the process.

Method and Conclusion The concept of the “mach’s mit - Wissen und Kondom” campaign meets these challenges by dividing the communication strategy into two phases. The prevention message of the first phase builds on the HIV message “condoms protect” and introduces the concept of STIs. Since the offline media are linked to the campaign website via QR codes, the public can directly access basic information on HIV and other STIs. In the second, more detailed phase starting in 2014, the mass media will for the first time be used to communicate not only HIV messages, but also messages relating to protection against STIs.

Like its predecessors, the HIV/STI campaign is designed on a cross-media basis, using billboards, City-Lights, advertisements and ambient media. Accompanying activities in social media supplement the media mix.