WORKING DADDY

TitleWORKING DADDY
BrandSOUTH KOREA MINISTRY OF GENDER EQUALITY AND FAMILY
Product / ServiceGENDER-EQUALITY
CategoryB04. Charities, Public Health, Safety & Awareness Messages
EntrantFLEISHMAN-HILLARD KOREA Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
PR Agency FLEISHMAN-HILLARD KOREA Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Entrant Company FLEISHMAN-HILLARD KOREA Seoul, SOUTH KOREA

Credits

Name Company Position
Sylvia Shin FleishmanHillard Korea Account Director
Rosa So FleishmanHillard Korea Account Manager
Jacklyn Ahn FleishmanHillard Korea Account Manager
Violet Kim FleishmanHillard Korea Executive Coordinator
Serena Cho FleishmanHillard Korea Designer

The Campaign

Countless studies prove high female participation in a country’s workforce is a key economic driver. For Korean men though, work is expected to come before family, leaving Moms to take care of kids and the home with no time to focus on developing their careers. The Korean Ministry for Gender Equality and Family (MGEF) wanted to redress the balance. We developed a creative PR-led campaign that flipped the issue on its head. Instead of targeting Moms, we focused on getting Dads to spend more time with their kids. We created Working Daddy, an integrated campaign using creative partnerships to promote work/family balance. We teamed the Ministry up with popular reality TV, inviting parents to an on-air forum for candid conversation with the Minister, a working mom herself. To help change corporate culture, family-friendly certifications were awarded to companies allowing Daddies to leave work on time at least once a week. To encourage retail to join the movement, recognition was given for extending discounts to Working Daddies. Since launch, the term Working Daddy has entered Korea’s cultural lexicon with mentions in over 1,000 news articles, blogs and Tweets. The TV show alone sparked widespread discussion in the media, valued at almost half-a-million US dollars. And the campaign contributed to government action beyond MGEF with the introduction of a Daddies’ Month and support centers for both working parents – so millions of Korean kids can enjoy more time with their Daddies, and their Moms have more time and space to continue careers.

The Brief

MGEF wanted mommies to re-enter the workforce and for society to understand the importance, and rights, of working daddies to spend more time with their children. Research took the form of interviews with relevant experts, professors, child educators and doctors, as well as frank discussions with parents. The results made it clear that the campaign needed to change both attitudes and behavior. For wholesale lasting changes to gender inequality it was also important it was institutionalized so the campaign aimed to get other government departments to demonstrate their commitment through the allocation of resources and policies that reinforce gender equality.

Results

Since launch, the term Working Daddy has entered Korea’s cultural fabric with mentions in 1,000+ news articles, blogs, Tweets, and US$480,000 worth of PR-value generated (with an investment of just US$50,000). The TV show alone sparked widespread discussion valued at almost US$500k, including 90 pieces of media coverage. Awareness of the issue is clearly up and the volume of accompanying discussion suggests attitudes are changing. The results have gone beyond awareness into action with the government pledging more resources to combat gender inequality. Among the business community several high-profile companies have received family-friendly certifications for introducing policies that enable Daddies to leave work on time at least once a week. Whilst the true results of this campaign will unfold over time, children in Korea are already enjoying seeing their daddies more often and their moms have the encouragement to focus on their own aspirations.

Execution

To kick off discussion, the issue was the centerpiece of Oh! My Baby, a hugely popular reality TV show in Korea that hones in on father’s abilities to care for children, featuring the Minister, herself a working mom. The multi-faceted campaign also launched family-friendly certifications for companies with appropriate policies and encouraged retail stores to join the movement and earn recognition by offering promotions to working daddies. Daddies Month was declared and the ensuing media campaign, which ran from August to November 2014, ensured the issue was highlighted across a variety of channels including SBS shows, websites, social media, YouTube and online communities. The use of face-to-face interviews with relevant experts gave added credibility to the importance of Daddies spending more time with their children. Public support centers, providing childcare and counselling for mommies, extended their services to daddies in a gesture that clearly demonstrated governmental support for Working Daddies.

The Situation

South Korea’s prosperity is one of the most spectacular economic miracles of modern time, but it has come at a high social cost. It has one of the worst gender equality records of any developed nation, ranking 117th in the world behind the UAE and Qatar*. For Korean men, work is expected to come before family, leaving parenting and domestic duties heavily to women. South Korea’s gender inequality has prevented many mommies from pursuing careers and has affected men’s ability to spend time with their family. * World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index 2014

The Strategy

The strategy was to focus on getting Daddies to spend more time with their children as opposed to the well-trodden path of trying to encourage women back into work. For this men needed to feel empowered and supported by both society and their employers so they could carve out more time to be with their children. Target audiences were therefore the general public, government and employers. Essentially the campaign aimed to get the issue onto the social agenda, which meant it needed to be PR-led, leveraging paid, earned, shared and owned platforms to generate an integrated, cost-efficient campaign with real momentum. With South Korea being one of the most connected societies in the world the strategy had a clear focus on generating social discussion that would be played out and propagated on social media.