We take a look at the International Women’s Day campaign hits, that have truly hit the mark, driving engagement and most important equity.
Whilst emotions continue to play a significant role in the lifespan and longevity of any brand, with an increase in content chaos on social media. It can be quite a challenge to keep consumers interested and satisfied with your company’s online presence. Another challenge is ensuring the topics you do decide to take a stance on come across genuine, authentic and most importantly actionable by your company. Too many times have we seen brands being called out by their own customers for being tokenistic and not practicing what they preach.
Celebrating days like International Women’s Day present opportunities into building brand sentiment. And, with the ability of brands to track these metrics more readily available, the information collected can be used to build a more effective and meaningful brand longer term.
Consumers remain shrewd when it comes to the social responsibilities of the brands they buy from, so it is no surprise that using International Women’s Day to push a promotion or offer will be met with cynicism.
So here are the brands we think have hit the mark over the last few years as they have worked to match their advertising message with their focus on empowering the female community.
Barbie encourages girls to pursue STEM subjects and opportunities.
British space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was ‘dancing around her room’ when she found out she was going to be made into a Barbie to honour their 2023 International Women’s Day campaign.
The campaign was created to inspire younger generations to engage with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, by creating one of kind dolls to the likeliness of inspirational leaders from around the world.
Nike – Dream crazier
Following conversation around their Just Do It campaign starring Colin Kaepernick, Nike released a similarly striking video titled ‘Dream Crazier’.
The Video aimed to “shine a spotlight on female athletes who have broken barriers, brought people together through their performance and inspired generations of athletes to chase after their dreams.”
Narrated by Serena Williams, ‘Dream Crazier’ featured footage of female athletes, including Caster Semenya and Kathrine Switzer, who have achieved success despite facing criticism and adversity.
Nike have prioritised celebrating the athletes’ achievements over pushing product – we even saw a flash of the adidas logo in one of the clips they’ve included – so it felt genuine.
Mothercare – #BodyProudMums
Mothercare are one highstreet brand that’s struggled. So, their online campaign was a positive step forward in talking to their audience and engaging with them beyond product.
Body Proud Mums starred 10 women who share their own stories of pregnancy and discuss how their bodies have changed. It features imagery of the women and their babies with no digital touch-ups or enhancement.
Mothercare worked closely with charities NCT and PANDAS, and this campaign reinforced their efforts to support new mums with links to community events for parents which are hosted in-stores.
P&G – #WeSeeEqual
In honour of International Women’s Day 2017, Procter & Gamble (P&G) launched their new corporate #WeSeeEqual campaign aimed at uncovering gender bias.
The campaign ran on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and featured a video showing men, women, boys, and girls defying gender stereotypes, using clips from several of its brands including Always and Secret. P&G brands including Pantene, Ariel and Fairy have all done ads on gender equality, but this was the first time it has brought them together under the corporate umbrella.
Goldieblox & Rube Goldberg – Princess Machine
Toy manufacturer Goldieblox, used this campaign to inspire and educate girls about the STEM industries. By securing a Superbowl commercial spot after winning Intuit’s ‘Small Business, Big Game’ contest. The commercial was viewed by over 100 million people, went viral online and with the aid of a Beastie Boys song scandal secured international attention.
This campaign aimed to make engineering accessible and fun to girls at a young age, and a Rube Goldberg machine used in the ad was something totally relatable because it combined everyday objects to do something magical.
PayPal – #BalanceForBetter
PayPal’s 2019 campaign for International Women’s Day theme was Balance for Better – aiming to forge a more gender balanced world and raise awareness against bias.
PayPal supported this theme in their video which featured female business leaders having a discussion on the ways we can bring gender balance to the workplace. Entrepreneurs including Benefit’s Lisa Edwards describe their experiences of being a woman in business and offer advice for women looking to grow their own business.
The video was shot by an all-female crew and production team, and the landing page brought attention to some of the female-led brands which are shaping the future of retail.
Throughout the campaign, PayPal pledged to donate to charities helping women around the world when customers use PayPal to pay for purchases in select retailers run by female CEOs.
You can see what events and activities are happening near you, plus get helpful resources to plan your own event over on the International Women’s Day website.
Or, if you need help planning your own search campaign, get in touch.