The Campaign

On average, women in New Zealand are paid 10% less, for doing the same job as men. To promote equality, and put a stop to this blatant sexism, YWCA Auckland decided that men should be charged 10% more than women. As the aim of the campaign was to highlight the absurdity of two genders being treated differently when it comes to money, we had to utilize PR to get the exposure and debate that we needed to get people thinking, including decision makers at government Our ultimate goal was to encourage New Zealanders to visit www.demandequalpay.org.nz to show their support for the Pay Equality Bill.

The Brief

One main goal of the campaign was to raise awareness. The problem has existed in as a silent issue in New Zealand for decades, so we needed to create something disruptive to get people talking and get key media covering the issue. Another goal was to drive people to our website to help the Pay Equality Bill get into Parliament. We targeted males with our 10% tax to get both sexes talking about equality and fairness. To let people know this is a serious issue backed up by fact, we worked with University professors and statisticians and cited the latest statistics in our print ads.

Results

The campaign was hugely successful, achieving all of its objectives. It received national and international awareness earning media coverage valued at over $1.4 million (broadcast TV, news, radio, press, editorial, PR, social media). It had a phenomenal 1,750% return on investment ($17.50 for every $1 spent). Not only was the PR coverage significant, but also really engaging. Channel One ‘Breakfast’ TV producer commented that it was one of the most hotly-debated topics they had seen in many months, and the online Stuff article received over 800 comments – far more than they normally get. Launch month of the campaign saw visitors to the site increase by 9,000%, and donations increased by 22% compared to the previous month. But, most importantly, we gathered the support we required from both men and women in support of the Pay Equality Bill. Which has now been put forward to Parliament to become an Act.

Execution

The launch day was planned to fall on the 329th day of the year. As women earn 10% less than men, we used this date to highlight that women would effectively stop earning for the last 10% of the year. Our coffee cart launched on this day in front of Parliament. We invited local media in Wellington to cover the coffee cart event. Our print campaign started running in the national newspaper on this day, with the lead message being, ‘From now until the end of the year, women work for free.”

The Situation

Men needed to be subjected to the discrimination that women face daily to truly appreciate the gravitas of the situation. By charging men 10% more in the real world, as well as letting women know just how this 10% they weren’t earning affected them, we created controversy to get politicians, media and the general public talking and awaken this sleeping giant of an issue that has plagued women in NZ for decades. At every touch point we highlighted the imbalance and showed just how this 10% difference affected us all. And most importantly we drove people online to support the Pay Equality Bill.

The Strategy

Part of the campaign was a TVC that was produced showing a man being charged 10% extra for parking purely because he is a man. We knew that the controversial storyline would create talkability. We knew that the launch of a TVC is not something that usually gets into mainstream press so we decided to offer the ad as an exclusive to TVNZ’s Breakfast Show for them to play and use as a discussion point on the launch morning – this way giving the ad significant (and free) airtime and using the presenters to dive deep into the issue and interviewing key spokespeople. To secure further media coverage and discussion, we created another story angle by organising a stunt outside Parliament in Wellington whereby a coffee cart sold coffees. The interesting thing was the coffees were charged at 10% more for men.