Marketers Who Elevate Women and Assist Their Causes
March is Women's History Month, a period that celebrates the strengths and achievements of women and strives to advance the causes most important to them. In keeping with this important theme of the month, consider the following case studies from the ANA's portfolio of award programs. The following examples demonstrate the marketing community's commitment to elevating women's issues and aiding their causes.
Summaries of the case studies follow below, with the full versions accessible through the embedded links.
Bai Boost Fights Gender Discrimination in Gaming
Beverage brand Bai Boost drew attention to the harassment of women in the gaming world and created a bot to intercept negative comments online and turn them into positive ones.
As an added feature, the brand's bot was programmed to dispense mental health tips whenever viewers typed in a specific command. The results? Positive messages for over 44,000 viewers, hundreds of intercepted comments, and $25,000 raised for a good cause.
Sports Illustrated Uses Its Swimsuit Issue to Achieve Progress for Women
With its "Pay with Change" campaign, Sports Illustrated used the popularity of its annual swimsuit edition to facilitate tangible positive change for women in society. The brand created its first-ever "purpose over profit" media platform, requiring brands interested in advertising in the annual swimsuit issue to prove their commitment to women's progress; this could be done by donating funds to organizations pursuing women's rights or by launching a company-wide initiative meant to help achieve equity for women in society. Only when a brand's financial or corporate commitment was verified could it then buy advertising within the swimsuit issue and its accompanying media.
True Caller Helps Women Block Harassment
On average, one woman is harassed every 55 minutes in India. True Caller wanted to create a campaign around this data point that appealed predominantly to urban women between 20 and 45 years of age and create a forum to inspire women to block, report, and share their stories about harassers.
The campaign was centered around a film called "Shabd," a five-minute-long video that highlighted the horrors that a woman who is mute goes through and how she is inspired and pushed to raise her voice.
Overall, the campaign generated over 179 million impressions across all channels and platforms, and True Caller had almost two million hits on its microsite, where almost 80,000 people took part in the survey hosted on the site.
Fearless Girl
On the night before International Women's Day, State Street Global Advisors gave the symbol of corporate America — Wall Street's Charging Bull — a new companion: a bronze statue of a young girl, called "Fearless Girl." With her hands on her hips and her chin held high, Fearless Girl was designed to represent the power of women today and tomorrow.
The statue was intended to ignite a conversation about the importance of having more women in leadership positions. The investment management company timed the unveiling of the statue with a call on companies to take intentional steps to increase the number of women on their boards. On the same day, it also issued guidance to help them take action.
Ulta Beauty Honors Black Women as the Muse of the Beauty Industry
Ulta Beauty created a film highlighting the contributions that Black women have made, and continue to make, in the beauty industry. Relying on the creative collaboration of an all-Black cast and crew including culture-shifting director, Joshua Kissi, the film acted as a mirror, reflecting the self-love and celebration of Black beauty.
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Morgan Strawn is a senior manager of editorial and content development at ANA.