There is a wealth of data suggesting old fashioned and male-bias systems in academia don’t support women’s careers. In fact, academia is one of the worst sectors when it comes to gender equality in senior positions.
Emerald Publishing – a challenger brand in the education sector and a long-standing advocate of empowering women in publishing – decided it was time for a change, and International Women’s Day 2019 provided the perfect opportunity to take a stance.
Create:
We decided the most effective way to highlight the real challenges facing women in academia would be through engaging video case studies. Working with Emerald’s extensive professional network, we put out a call, asking for those with interesting stories who have overcome gender challenges in the workplace to come forward. We carried out a two-stage audition process and identified three ‘hero’ case studies.
These diverse stories were filmed in a non-academic context and a dynamic style, aimed at presenting them in an engaging and unique manner that would challenge the traditional perceptions of academics.
Engage:
We showcased these stories through digital PR activity on a campaign landing page, along with compelling statistics from our initial research presented as an infographic, plus added-value content offering advice on how women can survive and thrive in academia.
The campaign was supported with a programme of social media content, aimed at sparking debate around the specific issues. All content was amplified through highly targeted social media advertising, including re-targeting audiences who had previously engaged with Emerald on gender equality issues.
Convert:
- 88% share of voice versus competitors around International Women’s Day – a 40% increase on everyday ‘baseline’ levels
- 3million impressions of campaign content
- 5,548 landing page visitors, 92% of which are first-time site users
- 190,000 video views
- 3,632 link clicks
- 9,077 engagements with campaign content
