The Campaign

On average, women in New Zealand are paid 10% less, for doing the same job as men. To demonstrate the absurdity of two genders being treated differently when it comes to money, we decided that men should be charged 10% more than women. We got the message out to the New Zealand public across several different mediums, causing as much debate as possible. Each part of our campaign encouraged New Zealanders to visit the YWCA site, www.demandequalpay.org.nz to show their support for the Pay Equality Bill, which we hoped would be accepted in Parliament.

Success of the Campaign

The campaign was hugely successful for both agency and client. It raised awareness of the gender pay issue and received national and international awareness earning media coverage valued at over $1.4 million. Our clients were invited to speak on local news and radio shows about the issue, so were able to talk more about what the YWCA does for women in our country. With a relatively small investment from the client, we were able to generate an amazing amount of publicity, with a phenomenal 1,750% return on investment ($17.50 for every $1 spent). Launch month saw visitors to the YWCA website increase by 9,000% and donations increased by 22% compared to the previous month. Most importantly, we received all the signatures we needed and the Bill has now been put forward to Parliament in the hope of becoming an Act.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We launched our campaign with the coffee cart that charged men 10% more, out the front of Parliament House, which received attention both nationally and internationally on sites such as the Huffington Post and Jezebel. We then launched our TV, spreading the message wide, and getting attention from the media and pubic. We strategically launched our print campaign on the day that marks the last 10% of the year; When women effectively stop earning, unlike their male colleagues. An email was sent out the next Thursday, with 10% left of the working week, with the same message that women work for 10% less pay than men, so it’s as if they’re working Friday for free. Each point of contact urged people to visit our site www.demandequalpay.org.nz, where the site was designed to look just as unbalanced as the gender pay gap. With each signature added, the site evened out.