My favourite campaign of all time: State Street Global Advisors’ ‘Fearless Girl’ from 2017
Weber Shandwick’s Uma Rudd Tan on ‘Fearless Girl’, a piece of advertising that is a favourite with the world-at-large rather than just within the ivory towers of the marketing industry
It was launched with a defiant bronze statue that stopped Wall Street’s charging bull in its tracks.
‘Fearless Girl’ first made its appearance on International Women’s Day 2017, when it was unveiled in New York’s financial district.
This monumental (pun fully intended) piece of work by Kristen Verbal was commissioned by McCann New York for its client, State Street Global Advisors.
Most people think it was a single execution public relations tactic. But the campaign aimed to pressure corporates into adding more women to their boards.
The installation was followed up by a letter to the thousands of companies that comprise the Russell 3000 index, asking them to increase diversity on their boards.
As a female creative director with an eight-year old daughter who bears a strong resemblance to the fearless girl in the way she looks and behaves, ‘Fearless Girl’ gripped my heartstrings so tight that I haven’t been able to shake it off.
We always look way back into the awards books and shows to campaigns of old and wax lyrical about the beauty of the craft, the cleverness of the idea and the golden era of advertising.
Fearless Girl London
But none of it compares to the reactions ‘Fearless Girl’ invoked – immediate and powerful global conversations around the strength of female leadership and gender equality, while at the same time encouraging businesses to make their boards more inclusive, gender-balanced and diverse.
It created so much controversy: From what it represents to where it was placed. Today, it has become a tourist destination, even though it was moved from its original spot to the New York Stock Exchange.
A replica of ‘Fearless Girl’ has also been installed in London. It has earned more organic social shares than any other campaign in the history of social media.
I’ve got a positive response and a clear nod of recognition every time I have mentioned ‘Fearless Girl’ at a client meeting.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for some of the other great campaigns hailed by people in the ad world as earthshaking.
Yes, we in the industry may love them but everyone else is clueless of their existence, so what’s the point?
My favourite story about ‘Fearless Girl’ is from the day it was being installed. An old Japanese woman from Hawaii was visiting New York. She hardly spoke any English.
And yet, when she first set eyes on that bronze statue holding its ground, tears flowed from her eyes as she whispered in Japanese: “That’s me.”
A great piece of communication transcends language and culture.
The best ads in my humble opinion, evolve beyond their original purpose to become powerful platforms for a greater cause. The message of ‘Fearless Girl’ has been elevated beyond its initial purpose to become a symbol of women empowerment and gender equality the world over.
Why do I love it so much? Because for a cold 50-inch-tall bronze statue, she exudes the kind of warmth and confidence that reflect me, my daughter and every woman out there.
Uma Rudd Tan is creative director at Weber Shandwick. She lives in Singapore
You must be kidding me
Of all the great campaigns the world has seen?
Not like a PR agency to go with a stunt eh?
ReplyMaybe not my best of all time, but it’s def up there. It will outlive most ad campaigns.
I lived in New York for a while and visited the statue several times. I saw women of all ages, especially young girls, stand by the statue replicating that stance with fierce determination. They would ask their mothers what it means, and get told it means you can do anything you put your mind to. You could see it was empowering. That’s powerful advertising.
ReplyGreat.
ReplyHow many of those people you saw connected the statue to State Street, or even better became State Street customers? How many even know why the statue is there in the first place – how many know who or what State Street is?
Think you – like the author – may be confusing advertising with something else.
If you read the case, you’ll know that this campaign was mostly about State Street launching an investment fund that only invested in companies with women on their board, because those companies perform better.
It was a statement made to launch the fund and also get people to invest in that fund. And it was a statement to companies to get their act together on the diversity of their boards or suffer not getting the cash injections they’re used to from investors (similar to what BlackRock is doing with companies on the sustainability agenda).
I think this fund is 200+ million now. I’d say that it’s pretty effective advertising… in addition to being an absolutely iconic piece of culture.
ReplyCompletely irrelevant metric at the end there
For someone working in PR, I would have thought the author would have focused more on campaign outcomes when choosing the “best campaign ever”, as opposed to sharing anecdotes such as “well I like it and so does my daughter”
Sticking up an award video doesn’t count. Where is the analysis?
Feels to me like she is mixing the personal with the professional. Not good.
What we have here is an instagram moment. That’s it. And sadly we have a creative lead at a large PR company (yes, I know) telling us (and clients I assume) that this is the campaign benchmark.
Worrying.
Replyp.s. any assessment of a campaign that falls back on the vague and cliched “it sparked a conversation” metric is on very shaky ground
ReplyGeez, the cynicism [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
State Street wanted to make a statement in support of females in a male-dominated industry. I’d say it succeeded on that front. It’s not always about measurable metrics. There is value in a brand doing stuff like this. Great advertising (yeah, I still use this term even if it’s become a “dirty” word) transcends advertising and becomes part of culture. In this case, women and young girls out there genuinely being inspired by what Fearless Girl means.
ReplyIt’s always sad when someone, especially a creative influencer, confuses a stunt designed to win an award with advertising. Given the yardstick being employed to evaluate things I would propose that the ‘burn the bra’ movement deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award. Just by attaching a brand name to some cause du jour does not make it worth of remembrance.
Consumers will remember this though:
https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2017/01/18/state-street-to-pay-64m-to-end-criminal-sec-fraud.html
ReplyDid you know that Global Advisors themselves were called out a year later for paying its women and non-white employees less than its white male employees? That’s the sad state of our industry that a client doesn’t even have to practise what they preach and can still be considered to have done an all-time great piece of work.
ReplyHave your say