Why is this work relevant for Direct?

#SeeBeyondTheHijab was specifically engineered as a social-first campaign for Instagram, TikTok and messaging apps to reach our GenZ audience directly in the spaces they occupy. Using emojis, the preferred language of the youth, we entered cultural conversations via the social platforms where many of today’s movements gain traction. And delivered a strong cultural message - to humanize the hijab and give its wearers the right tools for self expression. Every element of our customized GIPHY social pack reached our audience directly and helped P&G Rejoice create a groundswell within the larger hijabi community to express their unique personalities freely.

Background

In Malaysia, hijabis represent a big segment for hair care where major shampoo brands have a hijab-specific range to address the needs of the community. However, competition is intense with P&G Rejoice up against Safi and Sunsilk, key competitors with a larger market share. In order to build relevance among hijabi Gen Zs, P&G needed to create a credible role for Rejoice in culture. And do this by staying true to their brand purpose of encouraging self-expression and driving advocacy for better representation of hijabi women.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

To the wearer, the hijab is a symbol of pride and identity. But to many, it is seen as a singular item of clothing to vilify and dehumanize an already segregated population. Data and language experts tell us the way we communicate needs to change in order to rehumanize and build empathy. Yet the world’s most popular language for GenZ - emojis has only one passive, emotionless emoji. Further perpetuating the stigma that hijabis are nothing more than their headscarf. P&G Rejoice believes that every person deserves the right to individuality and self-expression. #SeeBeyondTheHijab is a call to action for change and progress. To advocate for better representation giving hijabi women the tools they need to express themselves in the spaces they occupy on social and messaging apps. If cats can have nine emojis of different expressions, why deny 1 billion hijabis the right to express themselves freely?

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In Malaysia, where 61.3% of its population is Muslim, the majority of Muslim women wear the hijab out of choice and pride. However, with over 61 countries regulating women’s religious head coverings, it is clear that the hijab is frequently used as a way to stereotype, and dehumanize. This is particularly pertinent for Gen Z hijabis in Malaysia – a generation struggling with self-expression and identity in a world that has polarizing views on the hijab. To empower them, P&G Rejoice turned to two defining elements of their generation: social activism (70% take it upon themselves to solve societal issues impacted by older generations) and social media (70% use social media to voice concerns and create change). Seeing how this stereotype is being perpetuated on the emoji keyboard with a solitary hijab emoji, we launched #SeeBeyondTheHijab to give the power back to the hijabis, enabling them to express themselves freely.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To get the world to #SeeBeyondtheHijab, we petitioned the Unicode Consortium on change.org to officially recognize a set of emoji designs that encapsulate the range and breadth of hijabi self expression. As the proposal typically takes 1-2 years for approval, we decided to continue the push for change and representation by creating a customized emoji pack to enable hijabis to showcase every facet of their personality, effortlessly. This was launched on World Emoji Day, followed by a promo film and social posts on Facebook and Instagram to underscore the importance of change and representation. GIPHY stickers and a customized emoji pack were then distributed for use on Instagram and Tik Tok. We drove awareness with KOLs - Stephanie Kurlow (World’s first hijabi ballerina), Nor Phoenix Diana (Malaysia’s first hijabi wrestler), Qhouirunnisa (Malaysia’s first hijabi football freestyler). All of whom advocated for and broadcasted our cause for better hijab representation.

List the results (30% of vote)

#SeeBeyondtheHijab’s petition on Change.org received one supporter for every six views. Beating the platform’s benchmark statistics for petition signatures per page views by 4 times. Aside from this, more than 43% of the petition signatories have shared the petition on their own social pages. The 8 KOLs who raised awareness and advocated for more hijab emojis achieved over 40k+ positive social engagements from the hijab community and beyond. The emoji mobile sticker pack on GIPHY hit 3 million organic engagements within 2 months, proving the need for better hijab representation on the emoji keyboard. While our application to Unicode to officially recognize our emoji pack is still pending, the true result is starting a much-needed conversation to humanize the hijab and empower over 1 billion hijabis globally with the tools they needed for self-expression.

Please tell us how the work was designed / adapted for a single country / region / market

To rally Gen Z Malaysians around our cause, we launched a petition on change.org Malaysia to advocate for more hijab emojis, and submitted a set of hijab emoji designs to the Unicode Consortium for consideration. The emoji set was designed to include a variety of hijab styles including the tudung (a hijab style popular in Malaysia), enabling hijabis to use whichever style they identify with the most. To spread the word on our petition, we created a promo video in English and Bahasa Melayu. We also launched the designs as a sticker pack on GIPHY so hijabis can express themselves effortlessly. All of this was done to create a groundswell amongst the hijabi and non-hijab wearing Malaysians. We also engaged Gen Z KOLs like Nor Phoenix Diana (Malaysia’s first hijabi wrestler), Qhouirunnisa (Malaysia’s first hijabi football freestyler) to rally support for more hijab emojis and to get the world