#REDEFINEWOMEN

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

Title#REDEFINEWOMEN
BrandHOST
Product / Service#REDEFINEWOMEN
CategoryA10. Charities & Non-profit
EntrantHOST SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation HOST SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
PR HOST SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Production HOST SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Jon Austin Host Creative Director
Kiah Nicholas Host Copywriter
Georgia Patch Host Planner

The Campaign

While many women are familiar with being on the receiving end of sexist slurs, they would be shocked to know that the dictionary was reinforcing sexism. We set out to channel their shock and create a social movement that would and affect real change. But more than that, we set out to prove that inequality can be found and tackled by everyday people in everyday places; you don’t need a big budget or a brand to do it. #RedefineWomen was a social movement that rallied the public to convince Google to update their dictionary definitions – so that they may reflect the world we want to see, not perpetuate the one we don’t.

Creative Execution

We created a social movement called #RedefineWomen to encourage Google to update their definitions with more gender-neutral language. Challenging one of the most influential and trusted brands with no budget meant we needed to be smart and authentic. So, we adopted a positive tone, to be followed by participants. The creative output of the campaign was designed for easy circulation. We created 18 Instagram tiles containing our offending examples and plea to Google for help. We launched on August 26th, Women’s Equality Day, knowing we could hijack active hashtags and capitalise on a contextual news hook. We used Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter to spread our message. To build reach fast, we contacted influencers to help us win major news outlets' attention. To demonstrate the scale of the issue and maximise engagement, we posted tiles one-by-one, throughout the day, shocking our audience with a seemingly never-ending stream of sexist definitions.

#RedefineWomen exceeded campaign objectives: 1. Raise awareness of Google Define’s sexist definitions: – Over 80M opportunities to see (OTS) across online titles and social channels. – We reached an international stage, picked up by Huffington Post, Times, Mic.com, Hello Giggles, Hyderabad, Kobieta and more. – Top influencers and celebrities like Zooey Deschanel and UN Women spread the word, with a reach of over 7M. – Within 48hrs, #RedefineWomen was trending on Facebook. 2. Create a social movement to get them changed: – 16 definitions were changed – Google removed sexism from over 22 million searches on average per year. 3. Do it with zero budget: – #RedefineWomen was a proactive project undertaken by two junior ad execs. There were no hard costs or media budgets and all head hours were donated by the agency. – Through #RedefineWomen, we've removed sexism from over 22 million searches per year. We spent nothing.

The debate around gender equality is headline news. Whilst policy and law strive to remove inequality, how women are described in language on a daily basis has an impact on the speed of progress. When we discovered that the world’s biggest dictionary was perpetuating sexist stereotypes we decided to act. We found 18 examples and getting them changed became our brief, strategy and idea all in one. To achieve our aim we set ourselves 3 objectives: 1. Raise awareness of the issue 2. Rally the public and media to convince Google to update their definitions to be gender neutral and stop reflecting prejudices against women. 3. Do it with zero budget and without the backing of any movement or brand.

Links

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