As many of you may know, our background is in Politics. Between us, we’ve worked in Local and Central Government for over 20 years.
From working in politics and having setting up our own business, we have been astonished to see that so many businesses and individuals miss huge marketing opportunities by not keeping abreast of current affairs and what is going on in the world.
Sometimes, what appears to be an emotive issue can actually turn out to be one of your biggest marketing assets. It’s all about learning how to tell the story and how to make a difference.
One example of this is Procter and Gamble's ‘Always: LikeAGirl’ campaign. 'Always' is, of course, their feminine product brand, products that are not often thought of as glamorous and easy to talk about.
The idea behind the campaign was to highlight the issues that girls face with their confidence during puberty. It challenged the idea that so many use the term ‘like a girl’, as an insult, often used to tease somebody who is weak, over-emotional or useless.
Procter and Gamble used this to come up with one of the most powerful marketing campaigns in recent times.
They held a fake casting call to carry out a social experiment to see how girls, boys, women, and children interpret the saying 'like a girl', and how they acted it out. Of course, the results were surprising – with the boys and women acting 'like a girl' in a sort of mocking way – weaker than normal. However, the young girls reacted completely differently, running and fighting as hard as they could. To them, ‘like a girl’, meant doing something to the best of their ability.
Although the campaigns main focus was around the video, it became so much more than just a TV advert. Procter and Gamble's 'Always' maximised their views and reach by using the power of social media. They chose YouTube as the driving force, accompanied by paid Facebook and Twitter posts, paid reach and influencer outreach.
They launched a hashtag ‘#LikeAGirl’ and encouraged women around the world to share the amazing things they do #LikeAGirl, as well as creating a page on the 'Always' website to serve as the campaign hub. The campaign also included huge PR activity through e-influencers and the media, with a 60 second version showing at the 2015 Super Bowl. Wow!
Procter and Gamble created the story with four key objectives: drive relevance with an emotional connection to the 'Always' product; drive popularity through top of mind awareness; increase penetration; and create cultural change.
The results were astonishing.
The campaign video was watched more than 90 million times and became the number two viral video globally. Positive sentiment reached 96% in just three months and engagement on social media was extremely high. Their followers and subscribers increasing dramatically, with Twitter followers tripling in the first three months.
'Always' earned 1100 media placements and 4.4bn media impressions in the first three months, with purchase intent growing more than 50% amongst their target.
Not only this, but 'Always' actually made a difference. Procter and Gamble received an award for the impact their campaign had on female empowerment around the world and in a study conducted in December 2014, almost 70% of women and 60% of men claimed that “the video changed my perception of the phrase ‘like a girl’”.
The reason we picked this campaign, is because it shows how the cultural issue of sexism was turned around to not only create a thought provoking and powerful ad, but also to actually make a difference to people’s perceptions. An effective campaign simply needs to tell a good story and make people think and feel. Well done indeed to Procter and Gamble.
If you want to make use of our expertise and experience, to come up with an innovative idea for you and your business then please get in touch on hello@daffodilpr.co.uk.
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