A Tribute to Womanhood

4 companies used simple ideas to support gender equality, upped their user engagement, and added another strong layer to their brand. Celebrating International Women’s Day through social campaigns comes with its own responsibility because it calls for action and heightens gender awareness.

Even if you weren’t aware of the exact date, no Internet user could go on a browsing bender without observing a host of articles, hashtags, tweets, and posts celebrating March 8th, International Women’s day.

Social Samosa made notes on a few top companies that had made Women’s Day a priority in their social media strategy.

1. Baggit Orchestrates Powerful User Engagement

Baggit, India’s very popular handbag line featuring distinct designs and animal-cruelty free products, celebrated Women’s day on social media for a week. Baggit invited their users to spill their views on women empowerment with their hashtag campaign #RespectWomen, which was seen across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

What did that translate into on social media? A whopping 32% increase in engagement was tracked over the 8-day campaign on Facebook and a 42% increase in engagement on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The social media campaign reached a total of 75,000 people. It’s all serendipity for Baggit, who is owned and founded by Nina Lekhi, and yes she is a woman. And no we are not surprised.

She maintains balance between her Personal and Professional lives. We respect her for who she is. #RespectWomen pic.twitter.com/ns5D6fuojN

— Baggit (@baggitworld) March 2, 2015

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation. #RespectWomen @nsui @HasibaAmin @AngellicAribam

— Laraib Neyazi (@LaraibNeyazi) March 7, 2015

2. Some Glitz for Your loyalty with Lakme

Ah, makeup person or not, most Indian women have had some kind of run-in with a Lakme product. Its quality products have always been presented in fun and effective ways, making it our nation’s leading makeup brand. It’s only expected we would have one kajol-lined eye out on Lakme on Women’s Day.

Lakme Salon launched quite the covetable prize to celebrate. The grand prize: Lakme for Life is announced every year on March 8th, awarding 8 loyal customers, 8 entire years of Lakme salon services! And for those who aren’t as lucky, there are plenty of discounts being advertised on social media, offering up to 30% on services between the 5th and 23rd of March. It’s a good sign when an uber successful company can create glamorous prizes for Women’s Day. As consumers we should keep an eye on companies like Lakme, who have the resources to create powerful platforms for gender equality. We hope to see bright, potent platforms emerging in the new future.  

Put your favourite lipshade on, wear your favourite outfit and step into the perfect shoes! Wish you a Happy Woman’s day beautiful.

— Lakmé India (@ILoveLakme) March 8, 2015

3. Switching Gender Roles with Blue Stone 

Bluestone.com is leading the online jewelry store market. Their thoughtful collections and modern interface has got tons of women browsing their very neat offerings.

This march they launched the Fearless Femme collection that is inspired by weapons. To support the new collection and raise their social voices for Women’s Day, they created a series of videos called #WOMENONTOP, an endearing set of videos that feature a husband reveling in chores and family commitments that social history has traditionally deemed as  “stuff women do”. Well tell that to our main character washing the dishes like it were a spa experience. In this quirky video, the husband is asking his wife why she had kept him from such a luxurious experience for this long.

While switching stereotypical roles might not be the complete masterplan to bring about absolute gender equality, we can appreciate the genuine nature of this video that plays with relatable scenarios. 

4. Authentic Voices discuss powerful women with Xpress Money

Xpress Money, a leading global money transfer service, created a powerful campaign with their #SheIsMyHero film. This short video gave an opportunity to the expat community in the UAE to talk about the powerful women in their lives. Real, touching, and authentic, we see people from diverse backgrounds (Indian, Filipino, Emiratis) tell us about their sisters, mothers, wives, teachers, and friends. These women had shaped these people and contributed to their sense of goodwill and personal integrity. Xpress money sums it up most powerfully; it is the ordinary women who create such extraordinary impact on people and everyday life.