In 2018, #SeeHer is evolving, growing in reach and impact and even geography, as the movement expands beyond the U.S. to the rest of the world. In January, #SeeHer 2.0 welcomed new members McDonald’s, CVS and Heineken; added new allies; launched new programs; and began to expand our movement beyond its b2b roots into the general market—and increasingly, gaining the support of fathers, brothers and sons.
The new year kicked off with a tremendously successful #SeeHer involvement in CES in Las Vegas, where The Female Quotient panel hosted by #SeeHer co-founders Shelley Zalis and Gail Tifford included top marketers from Unilever, JP Morgan Chase, PepsiCo, CA Technologies, Toys ”R” Us, L’Oréal and Ally Financial. The wide-ranging conversation focused on practical ways to move the movement forward and that, as Shelley noted, “Gender equality is not a gender issue. It’s a social and economic issue.”
The month continued with Gal Gadot’s inspiring speech as she was honored with the 2018 Critics’ Choice #SeeHer Award. Gal seamlessly channeled our mission of eliminating gender bias from programming when she said about Wonder Woman, “we wanted her to be universal, to be inspirational to all people all around the world. Our plan was to make sure we didn’t give too much attention to the fact that she’s a woman.”
The first month of the new year also marked the beginning of two new ongoing partnerships for #SeeHer which will dramatically increase our presence on network television, enhancing the awareness of the movement among the public.
The ANA’s team-up with CBS Corporation is a multi-pronged program that will deliver on-air, online, and behind-the-scenes opportunities to promote our mission. You’ll see #SeeHer on The Talk in daytime with a segment called #SeeHer Stories of the Day—I particularly liked the story on 89-year-old Daphne Self, “the world’s oldest supermodel.” We’re also taking our message to We Need to Talk on the CBS Sports Network, and meeting with showrunners from several CBS primetime shows.
Our relationship with Viacom, meanwhile, deepened with the announcement of a year-long series of public service announcements supporting the #SeeHer initiative. It’s an expansive campaign, presented by #SeeHer member marketers including Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, which will include spots on MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Paramount Networks, Nickelodeon, CMT and TV Land.
It was a good beginning for what figures to be a pivotal year for the #SeeHer movement, now over 60 members strong and representing an estimated $50 billion in adspend. January fueled our momentum for what figures to be an extraordinary February, as both the Viacom and CBS programs kicked off in earnest and we unveiled our historic engaGEM®ent with NBC’s coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, highlighted by a takeover of one entire night of Olympics programming. More on that next blog.