by MarkLives (@marklives) This week we feature insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of the “Breaking the Stereotypes” campaign for PPS from Promise.
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Watch our #Campaigns and #CampaignRadar playlists on YouTube! Client: PPS for Professionals
Ad agency: Promise Brand Specialists
Title: Breaking the Stereotypes
Information supplied by Promise.
Brief
The aim was to create a brand campaign that would resonate with professional women by delivering on PPS’s core proposition of “success is better, shared” in order to build long-term equity in this often-overlooked segment.
Objectives
- Brand awareness of PPS among professional women (reach)
- Brand favourability among professional women (engagement/sentiment)
Creative summary
Imagine if the words used to devalue women actually reflected their value, potential and power. This campaign aims to reappropriate phrases of prejudice and paternalism to challenge the stigma surrounding working women and open a dialogue around gender stereotypes.
Production
Notable to the campaign is that the models featured in the adverts are actual PPS members and established South African professionals. This gave the campaign legs to stand on, when we were questioned, “Are these even real professionals, or just advertising models?” It’s crucial when doing purposeful work that the output is honest, genuine and credible.
Resources
The social media launch of the campaign took place at the end of August 2018 so as not to fall within the clutter of Women’s Month. The intention was always for the campaign to live longer than a month — women’s empowerment is not only important in August. In partnership with Mashabela, we were able to secure key out-of-home sites, including billboards and Gautrain TV screens, to further boost what was being seen online.
Check out what one of our followers did to be a part of the PPS Women Acknowledged campaign! What would your own caption be? #PPS #BreakTheStereotype #women #ProfessionalWomen https://t.co/CRHYjZFrym
— PPS for Graduate Professionals (@PPS_SA) October 26, 2018
Measurement
The campaign exceeded expectations across every metric:
- Over 44m estimated media impressions
- Average Twitter engagement rate increased by 1067%, seeing our Twitter following more than double
- Over 212 000 people across the world joined the conversation
- The campaign was featured in major publications, including Vogue (Poland), Cosmopolitan (Ukraine) and Publico (Portugal)
- The campaign even sparked a social media movement in Russia
But, more importantly, we have empowered professional women around the world by contributing to breaking the stereotypes they are forced to confront every day.
Credits
Brand
PPS
Client: Ayanda Seboni, Dawn Ngwenya, Praneet Chhiba
Agency
Promise Brand Specialists
Creative director/Strategist: Robert Jameson
Art directors: Antoinette Raman, Kevin Radebe
Copywriters: Robert Selmer-Olsen, Tyler Lambert
Client service: David Sutherland, Lebo Mocwane
Producer: Sherilea Gaspar
Additional credits: Thato Simelane, Morgan Griffiths, Jolanda van Rooyen, Alexi Vontas, Caitlyn Lewis.
Production
Photographer: Jono Wood
Photographer’s assistant: Twiza
Makeup Artist: Nakita Oosthuizen
Stylist: Chanel Vlok
#Campaigns is the new weekly MarkLives column featuring insight into the brief, creative idea, production challenges and results of South African communication campaigns, both ongoing and recent. Have a campaign worthy of being featured in #Campaigns? Submit a short motivation to 
and we may well be in touch. Please include links to campaign material, when it ran/is running and why you believe it should be featured.
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