Existing Femvertising Campaigns

Loreal - Because You're Worth It 

Source: https://www.lorealparisusa.com/about-loreal-paris/because-youre-worth-it.aspx

• Because I’m Worth It. These four words are bound to the time of their creation and yet they have proven to be timeless. They have become what the brand stands for.

• Written in 1973 when a social revolution and a new spirit of feminism was in full swing, it seems clear that the phrase could only have been written by a woman. 

• Ilon Specht was a copywriter with McCann Erickson back in 1973. She was thought of as original, unconventional, creative and independent. Fortunately, she worked on the L’Oréal account!

• Specht was just 23 years old when she broke new ground with an ad that was strictly from a woman’s point of view. It famously ended with the signature phrase: Because I’m Worth It.

• Almost the minute the ad hit, it became clear that the last line - those four words - had struck a chord. For the first time, the message was all about what the woman thought. It was about her self-confidence, her decision, her style.

• Over time, “Because I’m Worth It” has become part of our social fabric. So much so that it was the subject of a 1999 New Yorker article entitled True Colours by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell acknowledged: “...”Because I’m Worth It®” has entered the language...and taken on a meaning well outside the stated intention.” 

• Because I’m Worth It was on message in 1973, and today we know that an astonishing 80% of women recognise and respond to this positive phrase and powerful sentiment. And what makes it truly beautiful is that “Because I’m Worth It” is translated into action every day by L’Oréal Paris – in its philanthropy, its products, and its thoughtful celebration of women.

Always - Like A Girl

Source: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/case-study-always-likeagirl/1366870

The issue: 'Nobody will ever share anything that has the Always logo on it.' Who would want to be associated with periods? A great idea proved that you can make a feminine-hygiene brand more popular. But it was no easy task. Sanitary pads are a low-involvement category. Women don’t want to spend even a second thinking about it, as periods are already enough of a pain.

• Communication has also traditionally been quite un-engaging, with a focus on product performance and demos. 

• For a long time Always led the category around the world, thanks to constant innovation and the superior performance of its products. 

• With time, though, functional differentiation between brands narrowed.

• Competitors also started to engage young women at a more emotional level and to connect with them on social media. 

• The result was that Always lost relevance with the 16- to 24-year-old age group.

• This was a big issue in a category where, research shows, women tend to stay very loyal once they find a brand they like.

• To reconnect with its young consumer base Always had to stand for more than just protection. Product communication simply would not do.

• Confidence is at the core of the Always brand equity. We had always communicated it in a functional way, promising women to fix a physical problem, so that they could be more confident during their period.

• So confidence in the product led to self-confidence. Yet this logic was exactly what women were starting to reject.

• Confidence was an issue they were increasingly sensitive about, but a pad certainly could not solve it. If we were to stay within this territory, we had to move from a rational proposition to a much more emotional one. 

• Our creative insight was that gender stereotypes are so ingrained in our culture they are even part of the language. 

• The expression ‘like a girl’, in fact, is often used as an insult to tease somebody who is weak, over-emotional or useless. And at a time when identities are already very fragile, it can have a devastating effect.

• To demonstrate this, we created a social experiment, holding a fake casting-call with young women and men, boys and girls. We asked them to do things 'like a girl', for example to run or fight like a girl.

• Women, boys and men behaved in a silly and self-deprecating way, acting out the insulting stereotype. But prepubescent girls reacted completely differently.

• They ran and fought as hard as they could, with confidence, pride and incredible self-belief. They had clearly not been influenced yet by the 'rules' that define womanhood; for them, doing something ‘like a girl’ meant doing it as best as they could.

Getting #LikeAGirl out in the world

• We had a powerful insight that resonated universally, and one piece of content able to bring the whole story to life.

• Hence we decided to focus solely on the video, and maximise views and reach. To affect culture, we harnessed the power of social media.

• We chose YouTube as the main vehicle and ran the video as a pre-roll, accompanied by paid Facebook and Twitter posts, paid reach and influencer outreach.

• To drive participation, we leveraged the hashtag #LikeAGirl as a call to action and asked women to tweet the amazing things they do ‘#LikeAGirl’. We also created a #LikeAGirl page, hosted on Always.com, to serve as a campaign hub.

• Furthermore, the campaign included PR/ER activation through e-influencers and top media. Finally, a 60 seconds version of the video aired during the 2015 Super Bowl.

The details - What we did and why?

• For many years Always has had 'confidence' at its core, but expressed this only in functional terms ("won’t let you down"). While this trust remained important, it became insufficient to maintain relevance among younger women, increasingly drawn to brands that also engaged them emotionally. 

• We needed to extend the meaning of 'confidence' into emotional territory. Our exploration led to the discovery that puberty is a time of confidence crisis in girls and that gender stereotyping through language plays a big role.

• This is exemplified by the use of the phrase ‘like a girl’ as an insult, implying that simply being female means whatever a young woman does is not good enough. 

• So, we created a campaign that challenged the use of this poisonous and damaging expression, redefining it in a new, inspiring way, and using social media and PR to spread the message.

What was the cultural impact of this activity and why did the work matter?

• The video has been viewed more than 90m times and shared by over 1m viewers.

• Men and women all over the world joined the brand to help reclaim ‘like a girl’ as a positive statement. 

• During the campaign use of the #LikeAGirl hashtag skyrocketed on social media and also in the real world, including displays and programmes at schools and even chalkboards outside Manhattan coffee shops, all proudly stating to do things #LikeAGirl. Many celebrities took on the hashtag and lauded Always.

• Before the campaign, the expression ‘like a girl’ was mostly used in a derogatory way.

• Since the launch, it’s been attached to overwhelmingly positive sentiment, becoming a symbol of female empowerment around the globe. 

• Even the UN acknowledged the power of #LikeAGirl: in March 2015 Always received an award for the impact it had on female empowerment around the world.

Results

• 90m+ views; number two viral video globally

• 1100+ earned-media placements and 4.4bn+ media impressions in the first three months.

• Always Twitter followers tripled in the first three months; Always YouTube Channel subscribers grew 4339%

• 177,000 #LikeAGirl tweets in the first three months, including many celebrities.

• Higher-than-average lift in brand preference; claimed purchase intent grew more than 50% among our target.

• In a study conducted in December 2014, almost 70% of women and 60% of men claimed that "The video changed my perception of the phrase 'like a girl'".

Pantene - Why's he called boss but she's called bossy

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/he-speaks-she-speaks/201710/he-is-the-boss-she-is-bossy-the-role-the-media

• Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide and her organisation of the same name is now stirring up more controversy about the negative stereotypes women continue to face with its "Ban Bossy" campaign, which contends that girls are called "bossy" for the same behaviours that signal leadership qualities in boys.

• Men are the boss, she is bossy! We have seen the Pantene commercial highlighting this and other popular stereotypes of women.

• Male bosses and co-workers sometimes don’t know what to do with ambitious, goal-oriented women who want leadership positions.

• These women are acting outside the stereotypes that the men may be comfortable with. Sometimes you can show men where to help. We don’t mean baby-sit them, but some are open to learning how to be the best boss, regardless of who their employee might be.

• We are bombarded by daily messages from the media, parents, teachers, bosses, and co-workers on what it means to be a boy or girl. No one is immune to these messages.

• You can’t overlook the influence of mass media. The average American child watches six hours of television every day, not to mention video games and the Internet. By age 6, our kids have already watched an average of 5,000 hours of television. By age 18, the number soars to 19,000 hours.

How important is television and other media in shaping our views about men and women?

• First, we have to consider the extent of the media in American life. The statistics are staggering. In 1950, only 9 percent of households had a television, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. 

• Today 98 percent of homes have TVs and two-thirds have more than one television. More than 70 percent have cable, which suggests that people also watch a lot of movies at home.

• Try this. Turn on your TV with a discriminating eye. Don’t watch only the programming. Also notice what the commercials are saying about women and men. What gender themes are prevalent? Is it only our imagination that all we see are babes in bras and lingerie, women acting helpless and still cleaning the toilet bowl?

• Generally, older men are perceived as handsome and distinguished. Older women are seen as past their prime and not particularly attractive.

• Advertising has apparently decided that the benefit of crudely impressing men trumps the disadvantages of dishonouring women.

• How many times do fathers across America sit down with their sons for the ritual of an afternoon watching football? Now they both get to share the stereotypical images of women! And don’t forget, they are also sharing the ultimate image of masculinity played out in football.

• Alas, media gender stereotyping is an equal opportunity field. Men also get their fair share. Children’s TV shows typically show men as the aggressor and engaged in exciting adventures. 

• And the rewards are predictable: luxury cars, beautiful women, mansions in the suburbs, and vacations in the Caribbean.

• Take a look at prime-time television. It reveals men as independent, aggressive, and in charge. We are all familiar with Donald Trump’s “You’re fired!” the signature line from the TV show The Apprentice comes to mind.

• Beyond cartoons, TV for all ages depicts men more as independent, powerful, capable males in high-status positions. Once again, the media reinforces stereotypical roles of men as in control, aggressive, unafraid, and, more important, in no way feminine. He is the boss!

Sport England - This Girl Can 

Source: https://www.sportengland.org/our-work/women/this-girl-can/

• This Girl Can is our nationwide campaign to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability.

• Fear of judgement, lacking confidence, not having enough time – our research shows there are a mix of practical and emotional pressures that stop many women from being as active as they would like.

• In fact, 40% of women aged 16 and over are not active enough to get the full health benefits of sport and physical activity, compared to 35% of men.

• That’s why in 2015, our groundbreaking This Girl Can campaign was born. It celebrates active women who are doing their thing no matter how they look, how well they do it or how sweaty they get.

• In October 2018, the third phase of This Girl Can launched – Fit Got Real. Fit Got Real builds on our campaign’s achievements so far. It’s specifically reaching out to women of all backgrounds and ethnicities who feel left behind by traditional exercise.

• In a nutshell, it seeks to challenge the conventional idea of what exercise looks like. We want to inspire more women and girls to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement, time, money and energy are barriers that can be overcome.

• Whether it’s running around a park pushing your child in a pram, hula hooping at home or teaching yourself how to swim using YouTube, it all counts as exercise. Kate Dale, our strategic lead for campaigns, says the National Lottery-funded campaign can make a huge difference to the lives of women across England. 

• "Although we’ve really successfully got three million women and girls more active, which is fantastic, the campaign hasn’t reached all women to the same level. There are some real inequalities when it comes to activity,” she said.

• “What we wanted to do with the campaign this time, as well as maintaining momentum and still reaching out to all women, is to be even more inclusive to make sure we really resonate with women from all backgrounds and where there are more specific or different barriers, tackling those as well.

• "In 2018 you're more than twice as likely to be inactive if you're a woman working in a shop or call centre or doing much more routine-based, lower-paid work than managerial professions.

• "And that leads to other inequalities in life – wellbeing outcomes, mental outcomes...it impacts on quality and longevity of life. That's something we're tackling."

Dove - Real Beauty 

• What is real beauty? A newborn baby? Kate Moss? A gently melting brie? It’s a question that toiletries giant Dove has been pondering for decades. Posing it has made its owner a mint, too: last year, valuers Brand Finance estimated the Unilever-owned company to be worth $4.1bn (£3bn), making it the 10th most valuable beauty brand in the world.

• However, recent developments have tarnished its reputation as one of the few beauty brands that felt as if it was on a woman’s side. Even though its Real Beauty bottles – made to reflect the diversity of women’s body shapes – aren't going into production, damage limitation is impossible in an age of Facebook and Twitter memes.

• The question is: why? The concept – six differently shaped bottles of shower gel, designed (in Dove’s words) to “evoke the shapes, sizes, curves and edges that combine to make every woman their very own limited edition” – might have seemed compelling in an energetic brainstorming meeting, but that’s surely where it should have stayed. 

• Packaging is one of the most important ways a brand communicates with its customers, and translating a bunch of different body shapes into plastic is crass. As one Twitter user pointed out: “The Dove bottle with my body type hurts my feelings.” And therein lies the rub: allowing customers to “choose” a bottle that mirrors their body shape is the opposite of empowering. Suddenly, shower gel is as fraught with body-image dilemmas as their jeans purchase.
• How did a brand that has always got it so right suddenly get it so wrong? When Dove launched in 1997, it was an anomaly; a soap that claimed to moisturise, with the audacity to charge four times the average price. But it was only in 2004 that it really distinguished itself.

• Its Real Women campaign, devised by Ogilvy & Mather, shot by leading fashion photographer Rankin and featuring six ordinary women in their underwear, was an early example of hashtag-heavy femvertising, a precursor to campaigns such as Pantene’s #ShineStrong and #LikeAGirl from Always. 

• However dubious the concept of female empowerment for commercial gain, it worked: within a month, sales of Dove’s firming cream had doubled. In the minds of its customers, Dove had established itself as a purpose-driven brand – with a purpose more commendable than most.

• After assuring us it loved women of all shapes, colours and sizes, Dove swiftly moved on to make money out of – sorry, support – other traditional areas of female insecurity. 

• Working on what cynics might call a proviso that you’re never too young to need salvation via a shampoo, 2006’s Daughters video discussed body-shaming, bulimia and self-loathing via a series of interviews with young girls. 

• Meanwhile, in 2007, Dove released Pro-Age, a product range aimed at older women via a TV ad featuring highly attractive, centrally casted specimens from the genre (tagline: beauty has no age limit).

• Over the years, it’s fair to say that Dove has never rested on its laurels. Once won, its market share has always been aggressively – and, on the whole, imaginatively – defended, albeit in a way that is perhaps best described as a thorough, 360-degree approach to exploring female insecurity.

• But it wasn’t until 2013’s Real Beauty Sketches film that Dove scored its most impactful success since its campaign began. Highlighting women’s penchant for self-criticism by showing them flattering artists’ interpretations of themselves, the film packed an emotional punch that quickly sent it viral: within a week of its release, more than 15 million people had watched it online.

• Since then, Dove has continued to appear to be on the side of women. After Bottlegate, however, more of us will perhaps be questioning whether it actually is or not.

• “Dove celebrates real women of all ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities in our campaigns, because they represent the real beauty diversity in society.

• The custom bottles … were designed to celebrate this diversity with others who share in our mission; they are not available for consumers to purchase,” Sophie Galvani.

• Dove global brand vice-president, says in an official statement. “We take women’s beauty confidence very seriously. Through the Dove self-esteem project we have reached more than 20 million young people with body-confidence education, and we aim to reach 20 million more by 2020.”