International Women’s Day - #equity
International Women's Day 2023 (IWD23) is fast approaching, which means it’s time to plan how your business and brand will be actively celebrating and participating in this day. Audiences don’t want to see brands churning out generic posts of solidarity. They want to see activism, which for brands in today’s world is communicated through their marketing campaigns.
International Women's Day exists in order to celebrate women and their achievements in the feminist movement, whilst also acknowledging and challenging the adversities that remain. This presents a perfect opportunity for brands to highlight their female workforce, audience and consumers whilst acknowledging what as brands you can do to further the feminist movement.
This year’s theme for IWD is ‘#EmbraceEquity’ with the goal to ‘share the passion and excitement that comes from valuing and supporting difference’ in a bid to reach equality through equity. Understanding how your brand can support and empower is an important first step not only in conceptualising your campaign but in putting real skin in the game and making a difference as a brand.
Showcasing the actions a brand is taking to actively support and advocate for equity for women creates strong positive messaging for the brand itself.
GymShark’s 2022 IWD campaign ‘We The Changemakers’ is a brilliant example of a brand fully committing and investing in its IWD campaign. Inspired by the 2022 theme ‘BreakTheBias’, aiming to break the bias of women within the conditioning world. The campaign encouraged the brand’s audience to ‘strike the IWD 2022 pose and share their #BreakTheBias image, video, resources, presentation or articles on social media using #IWD2022 #BreakTheBias to encourage further people to commit to helping forge an inclusive world’’.
GymShark also created a ‘Changemakers Grant- a program designed to support the women in our local communities who are working hard to improve not just the culture, but the future of conditioning – for all women’ offering a £10,000 investment for three ‘female-owned organisations, non-profits, charities or individuals to help support and amplify their initiatives’.
This campaign was hugely successful as not only did it engage real people within audiences to interact with their content, but it also showed true brand values through legitimate action, strengthening the relationship between the brand and its female consumers.
International women’s day is the perfect opportunity for brands to reflect on who they are at their core, as well as the ways in which their brand values support the women within their team. This is also an opportunity to self analyse, and pinpointing where the business could be doing more to support women. Whether that be in relation to menopausal or maternity support, team diversity planning or reviewing equal opportunity generation within teams.
Influencer marketing, although diverse, is one of the only industries that is predominantly female-led. Combine this female-focused industry with the connectivity, relatability and reach of influencers and you have the perfect foundation for an incredible IWD23 campaign. Especially when this year's theme surrounds empowering women in the digital space.
