Results and Effectiveness

The debate received national and international media coverage, on TV news, radio and online. We achieved the following: Highest email open rate ever for the YWCA Thousands of signatures were gathered online from both men and women to support the Pay Equality Bill Donations increased by 22% compared to the previous month Our activity was the most effective awareness campaign in the history of Auckland YWCA Most importantly, Labour MP Sue Bradford is now putting the Pay Equality Bill to parliament.

Creative Execution

We used eDM, banners and a microsite to highlight the absurd inequality taking place and encourage people to act. Separate timed emails to men and women arrived in inboxes at 1pm during the week. Women earning 10% less than men effectively worked half a day for free every week, so the email told them that for the rest of the day, they’d be working unpaid. Men learnt that their wives, mums, sisters and daughters faced the same battle. Both emails invited people to sign our petition at demandequalpay.org.nz Graphic, hard hitting banners featured on NZs largest news site brought the issue to the surface and sparked controversial debate about gender inequality. The banners directed viewers to our site demandequalpay.org.nz that reflected the disparity in its very design by being divided into two gender based halves. For every signature we received the site began to rebalance, lifting the female side higher.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Pay should be equal, but in New Zealand women earn 10% less. So with our campaign, we set out to raise awareness of this problem, and give people the chance to address it by registering their support for the Pay Equality Bill. We wanted to reach as many New Zealanders as we could and show them they had the power to take action against inequality.