I help brands find clarity and the most potent cultural entry points to positively move people.
Barbie Dream Gap Project: Evolving Social Conditioning
KEY INSIGHTS
Representation sparks imagination. At the exact age range when limiting social conditioning happens, ages 5-7, Barbie can inspire girls to imagine their limitless potential by showing a wide variety of Barbies as capable in a wide variety of roles and interests.
Outer dreams mean nothing without inner confidence. In an age of identity anxiety, Barbie can support girls with their inner game by modeling emotional vulnerability as well as confidence.
Potential is accelerated together. Today’s female influencers are defined by their collective growth-mindset. It’a shift from me to we. When I shine, you shine, we all shine together.
Pass the ERA: Introducing the Equal Rights Amendment to a New Generation
KEY INSIGHTS
Don’t sell the issue, sell the shock. Our research proved that most people wrongly assume women are already guaranteed equal rights in the Constitution. The problem wasn’t how to convince people that gender should be enshrined as equal in the highest law, the problem was to how make people aware that it isn’t.
Activism, not branding. Post Trump election, we shelved our planned #DUH brand campaign (um, we thought Hillary was going to win) and pivoted to a grassroots activism approach. Rather than create an integrated campaign, we took our inspiration form the Women’s March posters. We convened a series of design hackathons with creative talent, journalists and technologists who created their own expressions of the message.
Millennials like memes. If you are under 35, chances are you have not heard of the ERA. We focused on creating clever shareable memes and earned media in Millennial digital spaces. Ali Vingiano of Buzzfeed, who joined the creative hackathon, created an educational and entertaining Buzzfeed video in which I appear that has been viewed more than 250K times. Without any paid media support, #PassTheEra was able to realize its goal in raising public awareness with 19M+ impressions on Twitter (including 1,200+ social shares and 450+ social), and industry press (including 1,230+ social shares). #PassTheEra was a finalist on Fast Company’s 2018 World Changing Ideas list.
U by KOTEX: Reinventing a Brand on a Mission
Key insights:
Speaking of the V was verboten. Speaking of vaginas and periods were among the last cultural taboos. Millennial women were talking about hooking up, but not about what was going on “down there".
Category of shame. The coded language and conventions of the category (feminine hygiene, blue goo) created a dangerous stigma of shame and was inconsistent with the frank talk that young women embraced about every other topic.
A mission-based challenger. To turn the weight of the top brands Tampax and Always against them, U by Kotex could embrace a challenger brand strategy by bolding going on a mission “to bring truth and transparency to all things Vagina”. Kotex went from a brand who users were aging out of the category to U by Kotex, a challenger brand who successfully stole share from the leaders and continues to hold strong on mission and share 9 years on.
