Essay: analysing Always' #LikeAGirl campaign

PR is hugely important for organisations- it can increase brand credibility, influence perceptions, increase profits and enhance an organisations presence. In a nutshell, it acts as the middle man for the communication between an organisation and its publics. While the term is difficult to define, due to the wide range of functions it serves, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2019) PR “is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”.

In 2014, feminine hygiene brandAlwayslaunched what became one of the most rewarded PR campaigns in the field- gaining millions of views, mass media coverage and arguably, acting as the catalyst for a cultural shift on how society views women and young girls (Dandad, 2015). But, why was it such a triumph? This essay will critically assess Always’‘#LikeAGirl’ campaign, while depicting the reasons for its success.

The driving force for the campaign came from taking a different approach to self-confidence in girls. While the brand had previously put emphasis on the functional side of the products - Always felt that this message had to be communicated to its publics in a different way, therefore, they tasked the team at Leo Burnett Worldwide with creating a PR campaign focusing on female empowerment (Contagious, 2015).

According to Campaign Live (2015), the main objectives for the campaign were “drive relevance with an emotional connection to Always; drive popularity through top of mind awareness; increase penetration; and create cultural change”. Clearly set out objectives immediately set Always on the right path as it allowed them to picture the result and improved effectiveness in reaching that goal. As Public Relations Sydney puts it, clearly defined objectives“help you measure your success and improve your communication with your target audience”.

The main issue Always had was that their previous communication was not cutting it anymore, with the brand quickly realising that it was losing relevance with the 16 to 24 age category. Always had to find a way to reconnect with this audience in a different way - this meant stepping away from advert-based product communication and curating emotional content that would resonate with the target audience (Institute For PR, 2014). With the rise of influencer marketing and the lack of transparency that can come with this- audiences can quickly lose trust in advert-based communication and may have questioned the sincerity of the message if the campaign was executed in this way.

Just like the Always campaign, eradicating gender stereotypes and empowering women has become a popular theme for other campaigns. Partaking in this trend builds a positive reputation for the organisation and audiences will connect with the brand more if it is seen to associate with this feminist message. Brands such as Nike and Dove have all taken this approach with recent PR campaigns- with Nike releasing a video last month celebrating powerful women in sport, Campaign Live (2019), and Dove’s ‘Speak Beautiful’ campaign, aiming to change the conversation surrounding beauty online (Dove, 2016).

To form the strategy, Always conducted research that revealed “Girls’ self-esteem drops twice as much than boys’ during puberty” (Campaign Live, 2015). Research is an integral component of any PR campaign as it can form the basis of the strategy and allows the organisation to monitor progress and conduct an evaluation after (Mitchell, 2013). In this case, the research was the main component that formed the idea for the campaign and gave them a newsworthy angle. Always then realised that gender stereotypes are a key player in diminishing confidence in girls and creating a gender divide (Campaign Live, 2015).

The main component of the campaign was a three-minute-long social media video that Always partnered with documentarian and director Lauren Greenfield to produce. Choosing to partner with Lauren made the video look more professional and more like a ‘short film’- something the brand was aiming for, as opposed to a standard advert. According to Aminoto (2016) in the year of the campaign launch, online video made up 64 percent of consumer video traffic. As YouTube was on the rise, and social media sites started prioritising video through their algorithms - this provided a logical platform for the basis of the campaign to maximise viewership.

To create the video, Always held a fake casting call for girls and boys, women and men, where the participants were asked to perform different tasks such as running ‘like a girl’. They noticed a contrast between the way pre-pubescent girls and the rest of the participants responded to the tasks. Alwaysdiscovered that the younger girls performed the tasks as best as they could, while the others “behaved in a silly and self-deprecating way” (Campaign Live, 2015). Interestingly, no Always products were featured in the video. According to Judy John of Leo Burnett Worldwide, the team wanted the campaign to convey an “emotional brand message” and that “having the product in there wasn’t going to make sense.” (Contagious, 2015). This decision perfectly correlates with the brand’s initial objective to steer away from advert-based communication.

While executing the campaign, the brand first made sure to use their data as leverage to allow the campaign to gain news value and credibility. Media Relations allows the brand’s message to spread to a wider audience and heavily influences the views of this audience. Having this research made it more likely that news outlets would want to cover the story as it is backed up by facts. As emphasised on LinkedIn (2015) the media acts as “an intermediary between an organisation and its target public” and can help organisations “build public support”.

Following this, Always introduced the ‘#LikeAGirl’ hashtag to drive participation of young girls and launched their Like A Girlvideo. The brand chose to announce the video through an exclusive given to ‘Ad Age’and officially unveiled it through a PR launch via its YouTube channel. Offering exclusives is key for any media relations strategy- as reinforced by Reputation Today (2018), an exclusive “helps drive a story or news”. Offering this to Ad Agewill build a longer-lasting relationship where the site is likely to speak positively of the brand again.

Influencers and celebrities were also contacted before the launch and asked to share the video on social media. This was a strategic move from the brand, as it created a buzz that would fuel traditional media coverage and increase the viral aspect of the video (Institute For PR, 2014). As stated in Mention (2017) “harnessing the power and trust that people have in influencers can really supercharge your PR campaign”, and that was certainty demonstrated with ‘Like A Girl’. The video achieved over 70 million views on YouTube, with #LikeAGirl trending across both Facebook and Twitter (Institute For PR, 2014). The celebrity and influencer engagement also earnedthe brand the support of other celebrities including singer, Cher, and actress, Kristen Bell, who both tweeted about the video. Earning support and coverage is a key difference between PR and advertising and since neither Cher nor Kristen Bell would have been paid to talk about the video, it means they genuinely resonated with the message and believed it was important enough to speak out about regardless of payment. This has a greater impact on the organisations publics, as being paid to support a movement or a campaign can come across as bias.

Evidently, the whole campaign was extremely social media focused- heavily playing into the success of it. The brand recognised the value of social media in engaging with its target audience and used it to their advantage. This digital shift allows better convergence between the brand and its audience- as stated by Pauley Creative (2011)“Social media has increased the number of available communication channels and facilitated real time conversations between companies and customers”. Pushing the brand’s message mainly through social media is also quicker than through traditional media- as highlighted by (Lloyd & Toogood, 2015, chapter 4, para. 3), “it creates multiple platforms on which to push a message, often without the editorial checks and balances typical of the analogue-media age”.

Two months after the launch, Always used International Women’s Day as a tool to push the campaign further- releasing a follow-up video showing how the phrase ‘Like A Girl’ was already changing meaning (Dandad, 2015). International Women’s Day was the perfect opportunity for Always to push it’s female-focused campaign (Marketing Week, 2019). Using this day to their advantage was a clever move from the team- not only did it allow the campaign to maintain its relevance and newsworthy aspect but it slot perfectly into the #MeToo era conversation - increasing the likelihood that it will be shared. As Publicize reinforces “Timing is important because it helps to create a strong narrative. You want to fit your story into the bigger picture of what is happening at that time”.

Shortly after the launch, the success of ‘Like A Girl’ became evident- aside from social media growth, Alwaysmanaged to accomplish one of their main and most ambitious objectives- to create a cultural shift. In fact, a study conducted in December 2014 by the brand found that 70 percent of women and 60 percent of men claimed that the video changed their perception of the phrase (Campaign Live, 2015). This again, links back to the importance of research and how results can be evaluated from it. Without it, Always would not have known the true impact of the campaign and whether its objectives had been met.

To conclude, the success of Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign was massively underpinned by the clever implementation of social media tactics, such as the hashtag and the use of influencers and celebrities. Furthermore, the research, clarity of the objectives and buzz created in the lead up to the campaign hugely contributed to the media coverage and the sharable quality of the campaign- undoubtedly increasing the longevity of its impact.

Lead image credit: Nicole Honeywill via Unsplash