1. Always – Like a Girl
Above source: Always
The first ad that illustrates success or excellence is by Always ‘like a girl.’
This campaign was released in June 2014 and quickly went viral on YouTube. It insinuates children and adults partaking in activities such as running, throwing or fighting with someone ‘like a girl.’
The brands aim was to create a campaign that gives leverage to the brands legacy of supporting girls as they make the transition from puberty to young women, while reinforcing why the brand is “relevant to me”, also one that understands the social issues girls today face at puberty. The company was successful in showing how simple words can have the power to give strength or denigrate someone, also how a single person can destroy or affect a whole perception of a gender. In doing so Always fulfilled its objectives to drive relevance, popularity, penetration and create a cultural change.
The goals of a campaign can be defined using the SMART acronym, where objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. The way in which Always was successful in using this is because it effectively stuck to this. The brand was specific in providing who and what the campaign was aimed at which were 16-24 year old females. The brand executed a measureable campaign as through research, “Always #LikeAGirl generated considerable global awareness and changed the way people think about the phrase ‘like a girl’, achieving more than 85m global views on YouTube from 150+ countries. “ and “Prior to watching the film, just 19% of 16-24s had a positive association toward ‘like a girl’. After watching, however, 76% said they no longer saw the phrase negatively. Furthermore, two out of three men who watched it said they’d now think twice before using the ‘like a girl’ as an insult.“ (Dandad, 2018) Always was also attainable or achievable because of the fact that they took the commonly used insult “like a girl” and captured the subtle negative stigma attached to this to inspire a movement or change. One thing about this brands campaign that stands out is their creativity. The brand used imagination to intercept the key message (like a girl) of how the stereotypical term of “like a girl” was depicted through the video. In the video, the message has come across as females being taken for a mockery hence why when a ball is thrown they say, “you throw like a girl”, likewise when they’re fighting “you fight like a girl.” It can be understood that the term like a girl has come from societal discrimination against women and how they are seen as the weaker or less superior gender in society. The creative idea of using the existing stereotypes to help change societal norms is shown in excellence. The campaign elicited to be achievable and not time-consuming because it doesn’t require any effort at all, the fact that stereotypes of being a girl should stopped, and that is achievable.
Seeing images of sadness, anger, or fear can be differentiated by cardiovascular changes in the viewer. (Graham, 1990) This can reinforce the way that the participants in the campaign were being interviewed, how they really felt about the topic and how that affects the audience. As one of the responses were “like a girl is seen as a stereotype” – it makes you feel sympathetic, and you feel emotional towards the ad. Also, the tones in their voices enhance the emotions of understanding. This shows success in using imagery as a marketing tool.
The video shows children and adults, both males and females aged from 5-20, they are told to demonstrate actions as being a girl, and then they are interviewed as what “like a girl,” meant to them. As a viewer, you feel some kind of ‘emotional superiority’ watching the campaign as it really depicts how women are put down in society. What makes this campaign stand out is the different age ranges included, also the people are not biased. It is portrayed as a very authentic brand, and campaign itself. This campaign demonstrates excellence, as it is unique. Also the fact that Always is a brand that supplies sanitary towels for females, there is huge competition with other brands however after this campaign Rawal stated in an article “At shelf, we were being chosen by more girls and women than any other brand.” (Rawal 2018)
Overall, this campaign has many aspects of being successful, whether it is through the movement itself, social media and recognition. The brand overall delivers excellence through their message, which is clear and specific. It comes across as tangible and powerful difference, reinforcing how perceptions may be changed.
2. ALS Ice Bucket Campaign
BOSTON MA. – JULY 15: Lea Hull, 11, (C), along with Gelson Freire,10, Khalie Mohamud,12, and a group of kids from the Y, dumps a bucket of ice over her head on the fifth anniversary of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on July 15, 2019 in Boston, MA. (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
The second campaign I will be analytically analysing is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Within this challenge, it is an activity that includes the dumping of ice and ice-cold water upon either your own or another person’s head, drowning them in this. This would then be recorded and posted on social platforms, also the challenge required to tag another person to try out this challenge. Ultimately this brings a successful marketing technique as the campaign gains more recognition. This was done primarily to promote awareness of the disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. If you took part in this challenge it was advised to help fund for donations for this disease, and help funds with trying to find a cure for this disease. A family had come up with this idea, their initial ideas were to do something small but effective, something fun and that people will be willing to take part in. Shortly after, the campaign had become worldwide as awareness had spread that much. The campaign rolled out slowly but strategically. It did require a lot to take part in, which helped the campaigns success in terms of the marketing strategy. Many people in western society would not go online to read a newsletter or web article, unlike ALS – this campaign demonstrated simplicity and direct messaging.
The Ice Bucket Challenge campaign elicited many aspects of a successful marketing campaign. In terms of SMART objectives, the campaign was specific in what their objectives were, and initially what they wanted to achieve and why. The campaign had a specific goal, which was to raise money to help find a cure for the disease, “Goals can be clearly defined using the SMART acronym, where the goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound, or timely. For example, a marketing campaign may be undertaken with the aim of selling a specific number of items within a specific time, or gaining a specific percentage increase in brand awareness in a specific time.” (UK Essay 2013) The campaign was also measurable because of the fact that they used a hash tag (#ALSIceBucketChallenge) to help spread this awareness on social media and other platforms. The fact that this was a huge social marketing campaign; it attained or achieved a huge recognition worldwide on various platforms, “advertising on social media can be very different from traditional advertising, due to the nature of the medium and the way on which marketing messages may be received.”(Chaffey and Smith, 2013), having used social media, this was a huge success for the campaign. Additionally, A-list celebrities such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg had even participated; this was also a huge successful aspect in their campaign. The Ice Bucket Challenge was also achievable as it was so simple and straightforward; it was in the reach of everyone and anyone’s hands, therefore it was successful in being attainable. In terms of the Ice Bucket Challenge being relevant, it was. It was highly useful and effective in helping fund for money to find a cure. Lastly, the campaign was specific in having a time frame. As it was a challenge, the founders of the challenge had made a 24 hour time frame that when you complete the challenge, you need to ‘pass it on’ and they have 24 hours to do so.
The Ice Bucket Challenge campaign also illustrates imagery through the campaign videos. Watching people partake in the campaign makes you feel sympathetic yet content that people are taking part. Overall, the campaign showed excellence through its strategic marketing through the use of social media. Supporters ended up raising over $115 million for the A.L.S. Association.
3. Beach body ready – Protein World
Above: A Protein World advert displayed in an underground station in London makes New York splash in Times Square. Photograph: Catherine Wylie/PA
The third and final campaign I will be analysing is the beach body ready controversial campaign by protein world. Protein world is one of the best selling UK brands, best known for their protein products. The brand received an obdurate backlash when they posted an ad that went viral. This campaign initiates a young female, perhaps a bikini model this campaign advertisement portrays the young girl to be slim, and sexy. The ad features a black and white, svelte-yet-curvy, blonde and fair-skinned model, in a bright yellow bikini. Her hair is long and lush, her lips full, and her waist is tiny. Next to her is the simple question: Are you beach body ready? Followed by alluring headlines that state “the weight loss collection,” insinuating that if you are not beach body ready by looking like the girl in the ad, this is the step to follow to help lose weight, then follows this. The brand’s main objective is to target the primary audience (80% female) and make them feel certain self-reproach of not having “a ready beach body” by using pathos.
The campaign received a lot of negative backlash for several reasons. One being is because, it comes across as offensive to those suffering with real disorders, hence why the campaign was banned. Young girls in today’s society feel objectified and are put down to have this ‘perfect body’ in order to be accepted. The campaign as a whole reinforces this mind-frame for the sake of commercialism. As the controversy grew, other brands took the opportunity to ‘re-enact’ the campaign, for example online bikini brands used the same ad with different sized women with the quote “I am beach body ready”, to put the original protein worlds campaign to shame.
This ad is highly body shaming to the public and did receive a huge amount of hate, to the point where the campaign was banned. The ad depicts a type of imagery that makes the viewer feel a type of ‘guilt-trip.’ The brand knew that their audience would be females for this campaign; therefore using this type of imagery allows it to play upon their mind, wanting to buy the product, having the audience believe they should want to look like that. According to Colour Matters, “A single image delivers a lot of information in a very short time because we perceive an image all at once, whereas reading or hearing often takes significantly longer to process the same information.” This refers to the fact that the audience had a negative impression of the campaign initially, because that was their immediate reaction.
Protein world also used imagery in their campaign to reinforce their key message and visual through aspects of colour. Colours tend to have meanings, also tend to attempt to connect viewers with a specific feeling. The beach body ready campaign is made to be centre of attention as it is bright and yellow. This is usually associated with positivity, which is used as an oxymoron in this campaign as they triggered an opposite emotion. Furthermore, the typeface used is the boldest, large black sans-serif capitals. This typography can denote that they want to ensure people read it, hence why it is huge and in bold, it catches attention. “The imagery has to engage the reader and initiate thought processes” (Branthwaite 2002) Protein world used this technique of imagery to gain a reaction from the audience effectively.
Overall, the brand was negatively depicted not only on tube platforms, but also on social media with the audience taking their views and opinions to different platforms, such as Twitter to share their opinions which came across as “negative, shocking and unprofessional.”
26.2.2019