The Campaign

This being a workplace issue, we called attention to it using a workplace document: the CV. Our CVs are supposed to the “greatest hits” compilation of our careers. We only include the good stuff – the accomplishments, the promotions, the successful projects. We never mention our failures or flaws. But the problems that women face in the workplace have a negative effect on their CVs – career gaps, no promotions or perhaps even demotions. So, we used the CV format in which anything bad goes unmentioned to highlight a problem that similarly goes unmentioned – or ignored. CVs therefore formed the visual backbone of our campaign, from our website and social posts all the way through to the exhibition.

The Brief

Overall Budget - RM35,061.60 Breakdown of Cost: Space Rental - RM9,450 Key Visual Shoot (Production & Material) - RM4,558 Web Film (Production & Material) - RM5,830 Exhibition Materials - RM2,900 Printing (Banners, Window Display and etc) - RM5,800 Pregnant Lady Sculpture (Material Cost) - RM460 Supporting Materials (Hooks, rods and etc) - RM1,000 Transportation - RM2,000 Microsite Domain Name Purchase - RM63.60 KOL Engagement/Media Boosting Allocation - RM3,000 No Paid Media Budget

Creative Execution

We collected stories from women through an anonymous Google Form, and turned some of the initial stories submitted into social posts driving people to the campaign microsite, where there was more information about the campaign and the upcoming exhibition. Celebrity mums shared the campaign on social media, too. Most importantly, we turned the collected stories into displays at the Invisible Women exhibition. One display was made up entirely of hanging CVs, each featuring a story of workplace discrimination. Other displays were made of crumpled, “discarded” CVs to demonstrate how women are similarly discarded from the workplace – for example, one display featured random shapes made of crumpled CVs that, when illuminated, formed the shadow of a pregnant woman. We launched the exhibition on March 8 (International Women’s Day), and it ran ‘til March 18. We invited attendees to contribute stories of their own and sign a petition supporting the Act.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

We generated RM440,397.34 of unpaid PR for the campaign. More excitingly, on March 29 – just a few days after our exhibition concluded – the Ministry for Women, Family, and Community Development held a meeting on the Act, announcing plans for further development.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The campaign was intended to draw attention to the plight of “invisible women”, or women in the Malaysian workplace whose problems are overlooked. In attempting to achieve that goal, a big part of the campaign was the Invisible Women exhibition. By putting this problem on display, we were able to draw people into the issue in a more engaging way – and make these invisible women visible.

Our target audience was mainly young working women – those with kids or those planning on having kids in the near future. So to reach out to them, one of the ways we publicised the campaign was through celebrity working mums, who spread word of Invisible Women through Instagram and Twitter posts. Many of their followers fell into our target demographic, so this was a surefire way to get their attention. Also, we wanted to demonstrate how widespread the problem was by collecting stories of discrimination from as many women as possible. We turned quotes from some of the first heartbreaking stories we received into social posts to trigger interest and get people to engage with the campaign.