Yesterday marked International Women’s Day, globally celebrating women’s achievements in a call for greater equality. This year’s theme was “Make it Happen”, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognising women.
Over the course of history, marketing has played a significant role in advancing various causes – equality for women included - politically, socially and emotionally. More recently, digital marketing has helped create global and targeted connections to reach women and society with campaigns imparting encouragement, support, confidence, education and enablement.
In celebrating women around the world, here are five of my favourite movements where marketing has played role in delivering messages of positivity and empowerment to women in Australia and around the world, holding true to this year’s theme of “Make It Happen.” These campaigns take a multi-channel engagement approach, driven by digital to inspire change and self-value from within.
#LeanIn
In spite of this campaign being controversial, #LeanIn helped open an important discussion on the professional issues women face in the workplace. The movement evolved from the book of the same name, written by founder, Sheryl Sandberg, and offers women ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals. With a content driven online community hub and a strong following on social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, the campaign has proven effective in enabling women to share their stories about corporate life and in turn change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can.
Half the Sky Movement – Games for Good
The fight to end the oppression of women worldwide is prevalent in our current century. In 2009, two journalists embraced this moral challenge by writing the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. A multichannel campaign followed, incorporating film, online games, web, educational tools and social media to amplify the message to unleash the power of women in the labour force, and encourage participation in the movement for change. Various platforms are cleverly used for interaction, for example, the Facebook game sees participants assume the role of various women around the world solving quests, and engage in real-world charitable giving; while the documentary series streaming on Netflix directly reaches women with a particular interest in equality and obliterating slavery.
#LikeAGirl
The term “like a girl” has too often been used as an insult against women, particularly in their adolescent years. To reduce the disempowering impact this could have on a girl’s self-esteem and confidence, Procter & Gamble’s Always brand launched a YouTube video campaign to change the perception. Placing women at the centre, the campaign was powerful in portraying change in confidence and self-image during adolescence for girls, and in mirroring how society influences children about what it means to be a girl. Going viral with nearly 25 million hits, this campaign acts as a catalyst in the movement to redefine “like a girl” into a positive affirmation.
This Girl Can
Following research that revealed a significant disparity between male and female participation in sport, largely due to the fact that women felt body conscious when participating in physical activity, Sport England initiated “This Girl Can.” Through a series of short films and an online content hub, this campaign celebrates women doing their thing, no matter how they do it or how they look. At the centre of the campaign is the message that it’s normal, and in fact healthy, for women to feel unattractive whilst exercising, an idea that all women can relate to, inspiring them to believe judgement is a barrier that can be overcome.
South Australian Body Image Campaign
Aiming to educate women that their value comes from character and skill, not their weight or shape, young women aged 13-18 participated in creative workshops exploring ways to boost self-esteem. These ideas will be turned into online content and culminate in an online campaign to be launched in April this year. Its key messages are based on what women wish they had heard when they were younger in relation to body image, and aim to instil confidence in our younger generation of women.