Partnership building and sustaining our community-led activities, particularly reaching out to the private sector is something testBKK have been actively doing since 2014. We have various supporters and received generous support from Andrew Christian, Blued, Bond, Durex, Grindr Jack’D, and Line TV. Their donation is for testBKK HIV prevention pack project where testBKK distributes free condoms and lubricants to the young gay men and men who have sex with men and chemsex users and/or promoting our services and products through their social network. The partnership isn’t only for sponsorship and donations only between the corporation and the community that we reach, where thy, but also for better connection intentions could reach the community through the testBKK campaign. Moreover, having famous corporations sponsoring our events and activities also boosts the programme to reach even further into the community, where their fame is synonymous with sexual health.
“We live in a much smaller world, and partnership with the private sector is a win-win scenario to deepen and grow our connection with our communities. We are constantly looking to broaden this partnership with corporations working on issues related to health, rights and well-being.”
Midnight, APCOM Executive Director
One of our long standing partners is Andrew Christian, famous for their sexy underwear, who is a sponsor for Rupaul Drag race in the USA, has been supporting testBKK every year by giving free underwear to be included as part of our HIV prevention pack to raise awareness around HIV prevention. Despite Covid-19 Andrew Christain provided 2,500 pairs of underwear in 2020, and testBKK launched a cooperation campaign to raise funds to support the people who were affected by the Covid-19 situation.
“I’m glad I can be a part of your efforts to help support our community. It’s nice to see APCOM is making a meaningful difference.”
Andrew Christian
Geng Le the CEO and Founder of Blued, the largest gay social network app, has been supporting APCOM for many years and recently our 2020 HERO Awards. Geng Le and the Blued team visited APCOM in 2019 to discussed how to empower community organizations through technology to promote testing, improve the accessibility preventative measures, and bring educational information and anti-discrimination advocacy to the new generation.
“The HERO Awards and APCOM have been well recognized in the MSM community in the Asia Pacific region. Blued has been committed to promote HIV prevention in the region, taking advantage of its information communication technologies.”
Geng Le the CEO and Founder of Blued
Durex provides testBKK thousands of condoms and lubricants every year to support the HIV prevention programme. In 2018, testBKK ran a discount promotion campaign with Durex by giving a special prize to a lucky winner that bought Durex products through tessBKK code. Which also gained a lot of attention from the community and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Durex also campaigned with testBKK (73,969 followers) on their Facebook page (11 Million followers worldwide) where they displayed LGBTQI+ positive image alongside with testBKK name and durex products, to boost their positive image to the community. The campaign called “Durex is safe for any kind of love”
For dating applications partners, testBKK are partnering with Blued, Grindr, Hornet and Jack’D, which are popular among young MSM. The dating applications are necessary in disseminating HIV prevention, treatment and testing information for it is a place where there is a high possibility of sexual intercourse and having the information strategically appears in these locations will increase awareness of HIV prevention. Grindr and Jack’D are supporting the Party Pack Campaign from October until December 2021 for funding and also free advertisement in the applications messaging and newsfeed functions. And the latest partnership with Grindr, have provided additional support for the programme for monthly targeted advertising messages to spread HIV key-messages.
In addition, we partner with the most famous gay party organizers in Thailand; GCircuit and White Party. GCircuit and White Party have more than 15,000 attendees for each event. The organizers discounts and donates a booth within the venue to promote HIV messaging to the attendees.
Twitter has been the platform that has large young MSM and chemsex users, with its freedom of speech policy on the platform, making it a safe haven for explicit content. Knowing this, Twitter has been partnering with testBKK for sponsoring advertisements for HIV key-messages promotion on its platform. The platform has generously donated advertisement fee on the platform. Furthermore, testBKK and Twitter’s latest collaboration is pop-up information for redirecting Twitter users to testBKK website and Twitter account for HIV information. Currently, testBKK account has gained 6,081 followers, mostly young MSM in large cities in Thailand.
APCOM/testBKK look forward to future partnerships with the private sector that engages with our target audience on HIV, rights, health and wellbeing.
Want to know more about our work and how we can collaborate?
Please contact: Thisanut Kaewnukul(Bright) [email protected]
Read also:
- APCOM welcomes Thailand’s approvalof HIV self-testing: TestBKK making awareness and HIVST kit through online campaign
- Demand for HIV prevention during Covid-19: TestBKK Experience
- Leveraging digital influencers for HIV messaging: testBKK experience
