March 8th is celebrated as International Women’s Day around the world. It’s a day that honors the achievements of women and enlightens everyone about creating a gender-equal society. We discuss five campaign ideas you can try on the International Women’s Day 2020.
International Women’s Day strives to spread awareness about women empowerment, women’s rights, and gender equality. This year the UN Women’s theme is, ‘I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights’. Gender equality has reached new highs and with this new multigenerational campaign, the aim is to bring together the next generations of women and girl leaders and gender equality activists.
Many brands take this opportunity to organize events, contests, or showcase their culture to talk about gender parity. As we are nearing the International Women’s Day 2020, let’s look at five International Women’s Day campaign ideas you can try this year:
1. Participate in the #IWD2020 Campaign
Themed as ‘An equal world is an enabled world,‘ this year’s International Women’s DayOpens a new window (IWD) encourages everyone to create a gender-equal world. The official hashtags for the campaign are #EachforEqual and #IWD2020.
Takeaway: You can participate in the #IWD2020 by organizing or attending IWD events, enter competitions, or collaborate with IWD on education, work, economic empowerment, health, media, retail, sports, and art-related fronts. As a brand, you can become an IWD partner or supporter.
Brands can involve their C-suite or executive leaders to submit a statementOpens a new window or International Women’s Day quotes on how your company is committed to building a gender-balanced organization.
You can also extend your support on social media by creating IWD #EachforEqual social cards. (The templates are available here)Opens a new window . Similarly, you can also upload your photographs sporting the #EachforEqual pose.
Image source: IWD Official Twitter AccountOpens a new window
Participate in the #IWD2020 Campaign by Striking the #EachforEqual Pose
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2. Promote Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Initiatives
Organizations are taking active measures to hire people from diverse backgrounds such as genders, races, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and religions. McKinsey’s Delivering Through DiversityOpens a new window report found out that firms with gender-diverse executive teams were 21% more likely to have above-average profitability.
To further promote the culture of D&I, Louise PentlandOpens a new window (EVP, Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer at PayPal) invited five female CEOs and business leaders to share their experiences on creating a gender-balanced workforce. This initiative was taken to celebrate the 2019 IWD, themed #BalanceforBetter. The company collaborated with Free the Bid, a non-profit that encourages equal opportunity employment in the film industry.
PayPal Released a Video Shot by an All-Female Video Crew Featuring Female Leaders to Promote the #BalanceforBetter Campaign
Takeaway: Having a gender diverse team can help generate fresh ideas and cater to different sections of your target audiences. By promoting a balanced workforce, marketers can stay on top of trends across industries and plan campaigns that appeal to all.
3. Inspire Women to Chase Their Dreams
The number of women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, medical (STEM) fields is staggeringly low compared to men, studies show. According to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)Opens a new window , in the UK, only 35% of STEM students in higher education are women. Women in STEM fields also make significantly less compared to their male counterparts.
Microsoft, in 2017, launched the #MakeWhatsNext campaign to encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM fields. The campaign consisted of a patent program that funded and guided young female inventors to file for patents.
Microsoft’s #MakeWhatsNext Program Encourages Girls to Take Up Careers in STEM Fields
For the 2019 Women’s Day, Microsoft conducted a full-day career coaching sessionOpens a new window for over 500 girls, along with their parents and teachers in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Takeaway: Along the same lines, you can organize events and conduct sessions covering the topic your organization serves in, invite experts in your sector, and help girls pursue careers in their fields of endeavor.
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4. Raise Your Voice Against Violence Against Women
Violence against women (VAW) or gender-based violence is committed in many forms. Domestic abuse is perhaps one of the most common forms of VAW. To help the victims of domestic abuse Vodafone Foundation, UK, partnered with Hestia, a London-based domestic abuse charity to launch a mobile app called Bright Sky.
The app helps users find the nearest domestic abuse support centers, allows them to record domestic abuse incidents in text, audio, video, or image formats.
 Vodafone Foundation and Hestia Launched a Mobile App Called Bright Sky
Takeaway: This IWD, brands can work with non-profit organizations and charities that support victims of gender-based violence. It doesn’t have to be a one-off thing. Organizations can either donate or help these organizations in other ways that would help them raise awareness about VAW.
5. Offer Discounts and Special Deals
Offers such as discounts, coupon codes, and other special deals are the low-hanging fruits of marketing, but they may backfire if they are not sensibly implemented.
One company that navigated this strategy brilliantly is Lyft. March is celebrated as the Women’s History Month to showcase the achievements of women. In 2019, Lyft offered a $10 discount to passengers who were visiting monuments, memorials, statues, museums, and small businesses that were associated with or run by women. The offer was valid in 37 cities in America and Canada, and some of the locations were chosen by Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to Barack Obama and one of the current board members at Lyft. Each city had a designated promo code.
Lyft Celebrated Women’s History Month by Offering Discounts to Rides That Visited Locations Related to or Run by Women
Takeaway: As a brand, you can launch discounts or special deals that appeal to women but ensure that they are not overtly self-serving.
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Wrapping Up
Before you proceed, remember: while designing a campaign, it is imperative that you genuinely care for the cause. Many organizations and brands in the past have tried to create groundbreaking campaigns in the guise of women empowerment and feminism but failed because consumers saw through the online activism, lip service, and shoddy opportunism. Such advertising, also referred to as the new femvertising phenomenon is a form of faux feminismOpens a new window and it desensitizes the gender equality moment.
These ideas could serve as an inspiration to design some extraordinary campaigns for International Women’s Day 2020.
What are your favorite International Women’s Day campaigns? Share with us on Twitter,Opens a new window LinkedIn Opens a new window or FacebookOpens a new window .