From Hollywood to the Beltway and in boardrooms across the country, 2017 was the year that America really, truly, saw her.
Our #SeeHer movement gained vital new allies, added powerful new partnerships and spread the gender-equality in media message across multiple platforms, proving that the most effective way to make change is through a united effort and commitment of marketing dollars to support appropriate programming.
In 2017, #SeeHer became the leading voice of our industry for accurate representation of girls and women in media.
Here are some highlights on what the movement accomplished last year:
#SEEHER IN THE MARKETPLACE
- We continued explosive growth:
- General Motors became a #SeeHer member, tapping into the 2nd largest advertising category for the first time.
- Other new marketers joined including Intel, Kellogg’s and Teleflora.
- By the end of the year, the movement 50+ companies representing more than 1,000 brands.
- We hosted #SeeHer member boot camps, led by #SeeHer co-founder and research insight expert Shelley Zalis. The comprehensive ½ day session helped key marketers uncover how to eliminate unconscious bias in ads on their specific brands.
- We created #SeeHer toolkits for Creative, Media and Research teams as well as for sharing with C-Suite leaders.
- We launched an Advisory Board with leaders to help us navigate the larger media landscape (sports, news, culture/fashion and entertainment):
- WNBA President Lisa Borders, award-winning journalist Katie Couric, InStyle Editor-In-Chief Laura Brown and Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis all came on board.
- We shared our proprietary bias-measurement metric, the Gender Equality MeasureTM (GEM®TM) at the ARF’s (American Research Foundation) annual conference as the open-source standard metric resource for the industry.
- GEM®™ took the top global research award at ESOMAR, setting the stage for a global launch.
- We shared GEM®™ scores for the top 400 Nielsen-rated TV shows to help our members put their ads in the best programming for the best ROI.
- Many #SeeHer marketers started utilizing the results to improve their media plans.
- Members’ GEM®™ collective performance on ads improved by 3.5%.
- GEM®™ terminology was included in RFPs with media partners. Media partners took notice.
#SEEHER IN THE MARKETPLACE
We widened our scope and partnered with programmers on tent-pole events to build more awareness of the movement in TV. Successes include:
- “A Woman did That” on MTV in March timed with Women’s History Month featuring innovators including Rihanna.
- “Dear Mama” on VH1 in May for Mother’s Day with Pitbull and Taraji P. Henson.
- Kids’ Choice Sports #SeeHer Award on Nickelodeon awarded to Olympian Simone Manuel.
- #SeeHer Spotlight weekly segment premiered on Celebrity Page TV. 23 segments aired in 2017, featuring such key talent as Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Tina Fey, Kelly Clarkson and Viola Davis, among others.
- Teen Choice #SeeHer Award on Fox awarded to Vanessa Hudgens.
- #SeeHer Pre-Emmy Party, September. (Listed in Variety as one of the key parties.)
- CBS/#SeeHer partnership.
- Fox Sports/#SeeHer partnership.
- #SeeHer segment on CBS Sports’ We Need to Talk, with Lisa Borders and Gail Tifford.
Yet, as great as 2017 was, 2018 promises to be even better.
In fact, the good news has already begun, as #SeeHer brought its message of gender equality to CES, and Gal Gadot was awarded the 2018 Critics’ Choice #SeeHer Award.
To help members improve their marketing effectiveness, we’re also sharing research results from three different studies.
While we’re excited by the incredible progress we’ve made, we’re not satisfied. There’s more work to be done and much more to talk about as we get ever closer to a world where we use our power in media, so every girl and every woman can be what they see.
We will continue to use our voice to improve representation of women and girls by 20% by the year 2020.
