The Situation
UN Women was looking to refresh the plateauing HeForShe movement by launching the More Powerful Together (MPT) campaign. MPT was a week-long campaign designed to be a global reaching effort to make a bold and compelling visual statement of the valuable role women play in society, and to motivate men to advocate for women for gender equality in a sensitive MeToo era.
The Challenge
While the inaugural MPT campaign was highly successful and elements of the campaign were supported and received media coverage in several international markets, there remained untapped opportunity to secure support and coverage more broadly — particularly internationally. HeFor She (HFS) needed recommendations on how to: 1. improve the campaign to execute in future years, and 2. develop a playbook, and toolkit that can be easily and efficiently actioned by UN Women offices across the globe.
After analyzing the requirements, objectives, resources available, network partners, and affiliates, two promising opportunities were available: 1. work with F1 in Mexico, or 2. work with the Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
The opportunity with F1 Mexico was selected because the cost-performance was greater, as illustrated by the social engagement of F1 being greater than FIFA World Cup, Premier League, and the NBA, combined.
F1 Mexico’s internal research showed that their audience met HFS’s target demographic requirements. Finding a relevant way to approach the frozen middle, which accounted for around 25% of F1 Mexico’s audience, would be the key to: 1. increasing commitments, and 2. increase awareness.
The Response
This More Powerful Together campaign, #raceforequality, was conceived to; 1. utilize strategic partners, whose commitment, and social responsibility initiatives complimented HFS’s mission, 2. leverage an existing relationship with Sergio Perez, F1’s only Mexican F1 driver, and previous collaborator, to be the face of the campaign, show public support, and help with branding efforts, and 3. reallocate existing assets to provide a cost-effective solution that solved two problems, where, and how to engage the audience in a relevant way.
Mexico City is notorious for its traffic. Imagine over 200,000 people trying to get to the venue. How many hours are wasted sitting in traffic?
This campaign provided F1 fans the opportunity to see exclusive content from Sergio Perez on and off the bus, received free swag, and get free transportation to and from the venue from selected locations around the city, in exchange for starting a conversation around gender equality. Allies can support HeForShe by signing up their commitment on the bus, at commitment kiosks, or at the event booths, located at each of the pick-up locations, as well as at the event. Limited edition merchandise will be sold at the event, exclusively.
The media plan centered around focusing on our partnership networks on three target sectors: 1. national and international coverage with CNN, and ESPN, 2. Motorsports, and F1 coverage with motorsport.com, F1, and motorsport week, and 3. Mexico City coverage with Milenio, and El Universal.
Key performance indicators were: 1. Commitments – tracked via the HeForShe website, 2. Media Coverage – monitoring traditional media channels for coverage of HeForShe activities at F1, 3. Social Media Engagement – Analyze key hashtags, comments, and shares, and 4. Merchandise Sales.
