Background

LEWDNESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, A SOCIAL MENACE. Be it a woman, a guy and a girl out on a date, or a mention of space for couples in a hotel; it made some people feel they had the right to pass leary comments. Social media platforms do not take a stance and the perpetrator goes unchecked. This leads to women getting silenced or self-censoring their opinions because of a fear of a backlash. Safety, respect, and 'Bias for Action’ are important pillars for OYO. Social Media plays an important role for OYO, it contributes most towards building OYO's reputation, given the majority of our audience lives on social media. Like any other brand, OYO has an Online Response Team that receives over 4000 comments every week, where the response time is less than 5 minutes on average.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

‘Is the girl included in the package?’, ‘Are those legs included?’ ‘Ladki lake do’ (bring us the girl). These are not even the worst of the comments that show up on social media posts every single day. You can try reporting these, but the platforms won’t remove them citing free speech. Many social activists and influencers have repeatedly shed light on this issue – how women don’t feel safe online. If this is how the internet treats well-known women personalities with a strong voice, imagine the trauma faced by normal women every day? But what do we do about it? We throw around phrases like ‘ignorance is bliss’, ‘forget it’, ‘it’s the world we live in today’ and the most defying one yet – ‘there’s nothing much we can do about it’. As a fact of the matter, we CAN and we MUST. When you come to think of it, have we ever come across a woman who hasn’t faced online threats, trolling or harassment at least once in her life? And how are we as members of a responsible society tackling this menace? These are the questions that moved us at OYO.

Describe the creative idea

For a brand providing safe stays for all, our social media had become a not-so-safe space. We blocked the trolls, reported them. But the social media platforms’ free speech policy failed to police this. So we took matters into our hands. WE TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE TO DRIVE A BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE; to free our social media of misogynist comments that impacted women’s engagement. AND MAKE ONLINE AND OFFLINE SAFE FOR WOMEN.

Describe the strategy

We didn't need a marketing campaign but a change in our ORM strategy. For this, we did something unheard for a brand — we called out each of these trolls. With every reply, we transformed ORM and made this policy - see a troll, school it. To announce the impact on social media, we put the trolls where they truly belonged — gutter, loo, trash. We asked everyone to join us in the cause via print and called out social media platforms for their unwillingness to take action. Ended the loop by releasing a video calling out the problem and how one simple but sincere step made a big difference.

Describe the execution

Schooling is a continuous process that happens every day. So far, 190,000 WOMEN (AND COUNTING) HAVE BEEN REASSURED OF A SAFE SPACE ONLINE AND OFFLINE. A year into the campaign, we have schooled over 3500+ trolls leaving smutty or unpleasant comments against women across our social media platforms. We addressed 3300+ gaalis (swear words) or abusive language over the past year. With around 1030+ “Ladki milegi” (can we get the girl) trolls, unfortunately, it was one of the most used phrases against women on our platforms. And we took the liberty to school them. While our campaign resulted in 8500+ engagements, what makes us truly happy is that some trolls had a change of heart and chose to delete their comments, while 300+ trolls also apologized for their behaviour. That’s almost one every day — one person who is hopefully chastened and won’t repeat this, we hope.

Describe the results / impact

While we thought we were at the risk of losing followers, we actually ended up adding them, 7K. All women. This meant a jump in overall brand consideration with a spike in positive sentiment to 35.7%. But more rewarding was to become an equal, safe space for women online. One post at a time.