When creating online content aimed at women it’s safe to say the pink and frilly approach is long past its sell by date. Recent research by Beyond Pink revealed a shocking 90 per cent of women feel like advertisers do not understand them, yet they are crying out for brands to engage with them on their own terms.
Online content has risen as a key channel of communication and combined with easy ways for people to share viewpoints and discuss their opinions on social sites and forums, marketers are missing a trick if they fail to engage with women in the digital space. If brands are to invest in online content it’s important to use the right methods to ensure a female audience is reached and more importantly, in the right way.
Directing branded content at women is about connecting with them and encouraging dialogue around issues they feel are important, as well as connection on an individual level around personal passion points. To make online content appealing brands need a simple and engaging idea that breaks conventions.
A great example is the recent Dove campaign ‘Real Beauty Sketches’. Already well known for its Feel Good campaigns, the video was designed to specifically speak at eye level to the female viewer. The production team asked a group of women to meet at a location and make friends with a person present. Later each woman was taken to a room and asked to describe their own faces to a complete stranger while hidden behind a curtain.
Unknown to them was that the stranger was a forensic artist who made a drawing based on their description. This was repeated with the friend describing the face to the forensic artist. Side-by-side, the images reveal that an individual’s insecurities are not always viewed the same way by an outsider. Through a real-life experiment, the viewer is encouraged to become empowered by the knowledge that their insecurities are not always apparent to others.
As testament to its success the video achieved 26 million views and engendered a multitude of positive commentary from customers who were genuinely inspired by the video.
To make online content appealing brands need a simple and engaging idea that breaks conventions.
In addition to developing a creative idea that resonates with its audience, brands require the expertise to develop this into a story. The Dove real women campaign spawned a variety of similar approaches as brands attempted to move with the times.
The retailer Boots recognised that to get women to engage with the brand, content has to tell a story that resonates with their real experiences. The retailer developed a series of video stories for its Christmas campaign intended to inspire people to take control of their lives and do things that make them feel good. The advertisements are perhaps not as well executed as Dove’s real women approach, but they show potential to create content that can resonate with real life experiences. This approach also has potential for further continuation of the story through the generation of additional content.
When creating online content for women, the strategy for distribution is highly valuable. It goes without saying that a great video is pointless if it never gets seen. To increase the impact of video content, the idea needs to be developed to open up a dialogue and encourage sharing.
Interestingly, the Beyond Pink research revealed that women spend eight per cent more time online than men and 40 per cent more time on social media sites. These statistics are revealing of the need to tap into a desire to share and discuss, which ultimately drives purchasing. Achieving wide distribution online is dependent upon an idea that promotes discussion and replication – or in other words, active engagement.
A simple idea that achieved great success was Bodyform’s ‘Boss’ video last year, which cleverly mocked the way women are marketed to. After the company received a comment from a boyfriend who felt he had been “lied to” about women’s time of the month in advertising for sanitary products, they quickly reacted with a spoof online video. The video depicted a boss in her office addressing the boyfriend’s confusion and revealing the real truth.
The film went viral overnight and what’s more, achieved its goal of creating a dialogue with female customers who were given the opportunity to speak frankly with other women about their experiences. This in turn drove female customers to engage with the brand and discuss products – exactly as intended.
There are many aspects to the process of generating and distributing online content for women. Brands need to only look at the backlash against Asda’s Christmas campaign “behind every great Christmas there’s a mum” to realise that marketing content to women needs to be well thought out and show insight into women’s world view, in order to not appear patronising.
Unsurprisingly, many brands have begun to explore what drives women and with the right tools and know-how, women will be able to enjoy content that is both engaging and resonant in their daily lives.
