Always' #LIKEAGIRL And Women Empowerment In Advertising

This essay analyses the brilliance behind #LikeAGirl success and discusses women empowerment movement in the context of Vietnamese advertising industry.

Prologue

In light of recent harrowing sexual assaults by government official in Vietnam, I want to take a look at the ‘Women Empowerment’ (W.E) movement to hold onto the little happiness, pride and positivity that still remain. The term has been among buzzing keywords worldwide since few years back, imminent in fields like politics, arts and advertising. Campaigns such as #MeToo, Inequality Balls, Blood Normal all gained wild success and generated much needed conversation about this topic. However, for our essay, I’m going to dissect this movement and the ad piece that ignited the first spark of W.E. It is Always and their heartfelt #LikeAGirl campaign.

(Left) #MeToo movement; (Top) Blood Normal ; (Bottom) Inequality Balls

Insight, insight, insight 

Girls from 18-22 experience the worst drop in self-esteem. 

#LikeAGirl is a classic example of how great insight inspires great campaign. So what was the context for it? Aging stereotype. Female hygiene category typically portrays an under-the-weather, out-of-mood girl on period who is then ‘rescued’ by these comfortable pads, which gradually becomes an annoying cliche. Moreover, Always lost relevancy to 16-24 age group while their loyal fanbase are growing old and soon hitting menopause (WARC 2016). So the brand and their agency, Leo Burnett, had to figure out how to 1) break away from conventional approach and 2) attract younger demographics for long-term success.

Both parties dug deep into the psyche of these young gals and shed light onto the issue of confidence. Initial findings report that teenage girls suffer from a huge dip in self-esteem during puberty. So the team went further to find out why. And the reason, the core insight, was society-by-design bias. During this transitional chapter, girls start to realize the gender inequality and sexism perpetuated in society, thus confine themselves to these norms and witness confidence plunge.

This is a profound insight that allows Always to propel their campaign forward. Instead of mere sights like before (fuzzy girls on period), this insight touches a core value of human being - self-esteem (confidence fall because of gender bias), the penultimate need in Maslow’s hierarchy. But it’s explainable why prior insights are only sights. Since previous campaigns are product-oriented, they required an observable occasion to demonstrate product feature, hence typical period problems. Yet the objective for this one is to create emotional connection, hence the insight becomes more intrinsic and humane to appeal to targeted demographic. Furthermore, this insight signifies Always’ strategical shift from promoting product values to emotional ones to create stronger consumer connections.

(Top) Always' Check No Stain'& (Bottom) Always' .

Ultra both use superficial insights to demonstrate product feature

IDEA, IDEA, IDEA

Then comes ‘Like A Girl’, the big concept comparing how different generations approach this term. Young girls, pure at heart, address it with confidence while older counterparts paint a gloomy picture. A video documented the process became an instant hit. #LikeAGirl went on to win major prizes, catapulted Always to the top and ignited a W.E wildfire across advertising industry. Looking back, the brilliance of this idea, what made it so viral, is the ability to visualize that esteem drop and gender bias among target audience. To conclude, this campaign is among the most influential ads on women empowerment, all based on a genuine insight and clear-cut creative spark.

#LikeAGirl viral video - the key hook of Always' campaign

UP-AND-COMING TREND IN VIETNAM

Vietnam notices an uptick for this movement recently. And it’s interesting to see how different brands use W.E to appeal to different age groups. Take Bluestone and ‘Bep nuc la se chia’ for instance. The brand noticed that modern wives feel their cooking efforts often underappreciated by the husbands. So their campaign empowered these wives by reducing the stress and responsibility placed on them through involving their other half into the cooking process.

Female hygiene and their teenagers are another fascinating example. For this category, women empowerment equals staying true to herself and following her passion. For a long time, Diana has prospered with a softer image ‘Là con gái that tuyet’. However, the brand gradually changed course to portray a more active profile, starting with ‘Bánh Bèo Vô Dich’ in 2015 and later with ‘Tin, Yeu, Hanh Dong’ for Diana Sensi Cool in 2018 (BrandsVietnam 2018). The company was among earlier Vietnamese brands that followed W.E (Time Universal 2016) and succeeded in flying colors.

Deliverables of Diana's 'Banh beo vo dich' campaign

On the other hand, Kotex has always positioned itself with dynamic, ambitious female persona (Time Universal 2016) and would profit from the trend in terms of message amplification. However, it wasn’t until 2018 did Kotex release ‘Dare to do the Impossible’ that aligned most perfectly with the movement and saw most success with positive sentiment on social media increased by 30% and understanding branded message 17% (Advertising Vietnam, 2018). Meanwhile its previous attempts, though followed that same persona, were still very product-oriented.

Kotex 'Dare to do the Impossible' campaign

The last example is Biti’s Girls’ Steps by Redder. For this campaign, empowerment means teaching young girls virtues of self-love and confidence. It taught moms to inspire their daughters to not only be compassionate and graceful, but to also believe and take pride in themselves. The message resonated well with target audience and become a major hit during International Women’s Day.

EPILOGUE

Looking forward, the message will be more saturated as brands start to follow the trend. Hence it is wise for brands to incorporate other insights (audience, market, local) to differentiate their W.E message from other’s W.E message or find an alternative trend to replace this one.

On a side note, as of April 21st, that corrupted official has been prosecuted and awaits further trial. It seems that little positivity might blossom into some much needed justice our ladies deserve.

REFERENCE

Advertising Vietnam, ‘Kotex Và Câu Chuyện Phi Thường của Tóc Tiên’, AdvertisingVietnam, November 14th, viewed March 17th, <https://advertisingvietnam.com/creative-work/kotex-va-cau-chuyen-phi-thuong-cua-toc-tien>.

Brands Vietnam 2018, ‘Diana - Hành trình không nghỉ làm nên tuyên ngôn nữ quyền không-đối-thủ’, BrandsVietnam, July 12th, viewed April 20th, <https://www.brandsvietnam.com/15924-Diana-Hanh-trinh-khong-nghi-lam-nen-tuyen-ngon-nu-quyen-khongdoithu>.

Time Universal 2016, ‘Femvertising – quảng cáo nữ quyền: Đã đến lúc Việt Nam nhập cuộc cùng thế giới?’, BrandsVietnam, March 26th,  viewed April 20th, <https://www.brandsvietnam.com/congdong/topic/2355-Femvertising-quang-cao-nu-quyen-Da-den-luc-Viet-Nam-nhap-cuoc-cung-the-gioi>.

WARC 2016, ‘P&G: Always #LikeAGirl’, WARC, viewed April 20th, <https://www-warc-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/content/article/marketingsociety/pg_always_likeagirl/108033>.