How brands are celebrating women on IWD2023
By Abimbola Mohammed
In commemoration of the International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023, brands and marketers have launched distinctive promotions and campaigns to excite their teeming customers and as well increase loyalty, deepen market penetration and acquire more market share.
The theme for this year’s event is, “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.
Here’s how some brands are activating in this year’s celebration.
Amazon supports woman-owned small businesses
Amazon has held an IWD festival annually for the last few years, involving several days of activity centred around the year’s theme. This year’s activity includes a joint campaign from Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Web Services (AWS), which focuses on inspirational women in sport. The women featured range from those behind and in front of the camera, business-side and pitch-side.
The campaign is also rolling out across Amazon’s Alexa devices. Users will be able to ask Alex to tell them about an “incredible woman” each day from today until 10 March. They will then hear about inspirational women such as computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace, and human rights lawyer Elena Gorolová.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz worked with the agency Antoni and Smuggler director Fiona Jane Burgess on a brand commercial exploring gender equality and why real progress isn’t about being the only woman in rooms that traditionally exclude them. “As a woman working in a predominantly male industry I feel very strongly about the need for gender equality in all areas of life, but we are so far from that reality. That’s why this campaign spoke to me so much. Because the world needs a wake-up call,” said Burgess.
PepsiCo
PepsiCo is highlighting many of its female workers by putting their faces on the company’s delivery trucks. The “She Is PepsiCo” program will honor 28 associates from 20 cities across the U.S. and Canada who have exhibited outstanding leadership prowess. Each “She is PepsiCo” honoree will be recognized via a personalized delivery truck wrap featuring the employee in her workplace setting, in place of the usual images of brands such as Pepsi and Gatorade.
Durex stunt exposes the ‘orgasm gap’
Sexual health brand, Durex is drawing on its expertise for its own IWD campaign, as it highlights the “orgasm gap” between sexually active men and women in the UK.
According to research carried out by Opinium, sexually active women are four times less likely to say they always orgasm than men. To draw attention to this issue, Durex hosted a London football game screening ahead of this year’s IWD, disrupting it at “climactic moments”, such as goals and free kicks. The Reckitt-owned brand partnered with sex expert Alix Fox to carry out the stunt. A campaign for “orgasm equality” launches today, with Fox to provide tips and advice to the nation.
LinkedIn prompts conversation about equity
While LinkedIn is often the site of much brand activity during IWD, this year the social media platform is using the day to support the advance of gender equity in the workforce with a global campaign. Content and conversation prompts will appear on the platform throughout March, speaking to the Embrace Equity theme. Prompts will include: “Who is a woman that has influenced your career path and how?”. Following IWD, the brand will be unlocking free LinkedIn Learning courses for the rest of the month.
Telemundo
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises unveiled a new campaign titled “Change the Game” (“Cambia el Juego”) under the company’s award-winning corporate social responsibility initiative “Unstoppable Women” (“Mujeres Imparables”). The new multiplatform initiative seeks to inspire, inform and ignite a community of unstoppable Latino women to shift their perspective and “change the game” of life. Activations will take place throughout the month across broadcast and digital channels and in a series of community events across the nation.
As a female-founded company producing organic period and bladder care products, Here We Flo is a brand which has destigmatising women’s health at its heart. To celebrate Women’s History Month, including IWD, the brand has launched a giant window display at Whole Foods Kensington. The display, which takes the form of a giant tampon tub, is the first from a period brand at the spot. It forms part of Here We Flo’s wider ‘No More Period Dramas’ campaign, led by a tongue-in-cheek TV spot which aims to destigmatize conversations around periods.
Barbie encourages girls to see themselves in STEM
To provide children with access to successful female role models in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, Barbie has created one-of-a-kind dolls in the likeness of seven leaders from around the world. These include space scientist and science educator Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, electrical engineer and Science Show host Katya Echazarreta, marine researcher and microbiologist Professor Dr Antje Boetius, and co-founder of ETU Education Li Yinuo.
Google and its suite of brands are celebrating Women’s History Month in a variety of ways. The flagship Google brand kicked things off with a site-wide spotlight on groundbreaking women in all industries. Starting on International Women’s Day, YouTube will spotlight a collection of women creators across industries, from gaming to fitness to film, while Google TV commemorates “31 Days of Women” throughout March by featuring one title with an inspiring female character per day on its home screen.
Google Play will feature apps, games and books alongside editorial articles that discuss female leadership and ways to embrace equity in daily life. Google Arts & Culture is also relaunching its Women in Culture hub with a new virtual gallery reimaging female artists in the frame, as well as over 60 new stories on untold women’s history.
Manchester City
English soccer club Manchester City is collaborating with Puma and the club’s charity, City in the Community, to unveil a limited-edition uniform and warmup kit in honor of Women’s History Month. The Man City women’s team wore the design, inspired by U.K. suffrage movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst, during a match against Tottenham on March 5, and the men’s team also donned the kit during their warmup and pre-match walkout the day prior.
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