P&G REJOICE EMOJIME #SEEBEYONDTHEHIJAB

Short List
TitleP&G REJOICE EMOJIME #SEEBEYONDTHEHIJAB
BrandP&G
Product / ServiceREJOICE SHAMPOO
CategoryD05. Cultural Insight
EntrantVIRTUE Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation VIRTUE Singapore, SINGAPORE
Media Placement VIRTUE Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR VIRTUE Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production VICE MEDIA ASIA PACIFIC PTE. LTD. Singapore, SINGAPORE
Post Production VICE MEDIA ASIA PACIFIC PTE. LTD. Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Ciaran Bonass Virtue Asia Pacific Executive Creative Director, APAC & MEA
Sudhir Pasumarty Virtue Asia Pacific Group Creative Director
Hayden Scott Virtue Asia Pacific Senior Creative Director
Kobita Banerjee Virtue Asia Pacific Associate Creative Director
Dini Lestari Virtue Asia Pacific Senior Creative
Hyojung Choi Virtue Asia Pacific Art Director
Pratiksha Chauhan Virtue Asia Pacific Senior Creative Designer
Yara Boraie Virtue Asia Pacific Junior Copywriter
Huiwen Tow Virtue Asia Pacific Head of Strategy, APAC
Zoe Chen Virtue Asia Pacific Strategy Director
Elena Kim Virtue Asia Pacific Brand Strategist
Lesley John Virtue Asia Pacific Managing Director, APAC
Catherine Gianzon Virtue Asia Pacific Business Director
Russell Fernandez Virtue Asia Pacific Account Director
Alicia Tiong Virtue Asia Pacific Account Director
Sari Trisulo Vice Media Asia Pacific VP Production, APAC
Naomi Seow Vice Media Asia Pacific Producer
Mark Garner Vice Media Asia Pacific Talent Producer

Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

#SeeBeyondTheHijab was engineered to be a social-first campaign for Instagram and allow our GenZ audience self-expression in the spaces they occupy. Using emojis, the preferred language of GenZ we leveraged social platforms where many of today’s movements gain traction. And delivered a strong cultural message - to humanise the hijab and give its wearers the right tools for self expression. P&G Rejoice partnered with hijabi influencers to express the importance of inclusion on social platforms and create a groundswell within the larger hijabi community to encourage them to express their unique personalities using our specifically designed GIPHY social pack.

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. If cats can have nine emojis of different expressions, why deny hijabis - a community of nearly 1 billion the right to express themselves freely?

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

With over 61 countries regulating women’s religious head coverings, it is clear that the head scarf is frequently used as a way to stereotype, marginalize and vilify. This is particularly pertinent for GenZ hijabis – 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% will take it upon themselves to solve societal issues impacted by older generations) and social media (70% will use social media to voice concerns and create change). With this segregation being perpetuated on the emoji keyboard with a solitary hijab emoji we launched #SeeBeyondTheHijab to give the 1 billion strong hijabi population a voice on social. We did this by creating a customized emoji pack and GIPHY stickers, to give the power back to hijabis and enable 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. The petition was launched on World Emoji Day, followed by a promo film 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), and Cili Bling (Chinese-Hungarian Content Creator). All of whom advocated for and broadcasted our cause for better hijab representation.

List the results (30% of vote)

The #SeeBeyondtheHijab 60s social film garnered over 939,700 views on YouTube (TrueView in-stream skippable), performing at 15% above the industry benchmark VTR. The 15s film achieved a 30% reach on Youtube pre-roll (non-skippable), with over 1.6M completed views. 8 KOLs were engaged to drive awareness and engagement, achieving a social reach of 403k and 40k+ engagements. The emoji custom sticker pack on GIPHY hit 3 million organic engagements within 2 months. #SeeBeyondtheHijab’s petition on Change.org received 1 supporter for every 6 page views. Beating the platform’s benchmark statistics for petition signatures per page views by 4 times. 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 about the cultural insight that inspired the work

For hijabis, the hijab is a symbol of pride and identity. However for millions the world over, the hijab conjures strong misconceptions and opinions. Meaning hijabis are marginalized, labeled and stripped of any individuality. For Gen Z hijabis, individuality is a cornerstone of their identity, and the digital world is where customized self-expression reigns over courtesy emojis. Yet with over 3,304 emojis available across age, gender and ethnicity, there is only one passive emotionless emoji to represent the hijabi community. Further limiting their tools for self expression. And reinforcing the stigma that hijabis are nothing more than their head scarf. In fact, even cats get nine emojis with nine different expressions! So why should a community of nearly 1 billion personalities only get 1 emoji to represent themselves?

Links

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