So, in no particular order here’s my pick of the top 10 ad campaigns that have been created to empower women! The term ‘Femvertising’ is used widely within the industry, some have criticised the style of ads and messaging, claiming that they are sexist; however I see these campaigns as a drive of empowerment and confidence to young women through a brand (and some clever marketing!)
1. Sport England: This Girl Can
After the first year of the ‘This Girl Can’ launch, 2.8 million 14-40 year old women said they had done some or more activity as a result of the campaign. The campaign not only had an impact on UK women, it sparked conversations across the globe in more than 110 countries worldwide.
2. Always: Like a Girl
Always #LikeAGirl generated considerable global awareness and changed the way people think about the phrase ‘like a girl’, achieving more than 85m global views on YouTube from 150+ countries.
Prior to watching the film, just 19% of 16-24s had a positive association toward ‘like a girl’. After watching, however, 76% said they no longer saw the phrase negatively. Furthermore, two out of three men who watched it said they’d now think twice before using the ‘like a girl’ as an insult.
3. L’Oreal: Women of Worth
L’Oréal Paris awards 10 new women each year with $10,000 to support their extraordinary efforts to serve their communities.
4. Under Armour: I Will What I Want
The Under Armour ‘I Will What I Want’ campaign won the 2015 Grand Prix Cannes Lions 2015 Cyber category award. The video has been viewed over 2.8 million times on YouTube, earning $10m in free media coverage and a 293% lift in brand conversation for the sporting brand. In addition, there was a 42% increase in traffic to underarmour.com.
5. Microsoft: Girls Do Science
The Girls Do Science advert was featured as AdWeek’s ad of the day in March 2015.
6. Dove & Twitter: #SpeakBeautiful
The results of this campaign exceeded expectations most importantly, they stimulated a behavioural change on a mass scale through #SpeakBeautiful.
In 2014, there were over 5.3 million negative Tweets about beauty or body image sent by women. In 2015, that number dropped to 3.4 million – a 36.8% decrease year over year.
Throughout the course of the year, women were inspired by the message, using #SpeakBeautiful more than 168,000 times and driving 800 million social media impressions of the campaign.
7. HelloFlo: First Moon Party
This advert was immediately successful and went viral overnight! The ad’s authenticness and edgy humour was a huge hit for the relatively unknown brand, attracting almost 8m views and 203,000 shares in 2013.
8. Pantene: #ShineStrong
As well as launching the social campaign, the brand also launched the Shine Strong Fund, which seeks to educate and enable women to overcome bias and societal expectations as well as celebrate strong women. The fund collaborates with the American Association of University Women, underwriting monetary grants and helping college women have access to influential leaders.
9. UN Women & Emma Watson: #HeForShe
The #HeForShe campaign acts as a voice that is constantly fighting for gender equality, so far, 1.3b conversations have been had surrounding this.
10. Sports Illustrated: #SwimSexy
The #SwimSuitsForAll campaign allowed Sports Illustrated to break the mold more than they ever have before – the models proved that sexy has no size or age limit.
