Lux Search Words - #IntoTheSpotlight

Background

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia have been appalling, the country ranking 141 out of 144 in the 2016 Global Gender Gap Report.

Societal norms and restrictions meant there were little or no opportunities and exposure for women with professional skills.

In the highly-contested beauty category, Lux wanted to shift from just being another beauty product to showcasing the beauty that lies within a woman’s talents and abilities. The objective was to increase engagement with such women and give them an opportunity and platform to showcase their abilities.

Idea

For too long, women have been kept in the shadows and veiled, both literally and metaphorically. Only 16% of the Saudi workforce are women, compared to a global average of 40% while a massive 76% of unemployed university graduates are female.

On International Women’s Day, the idea was to put female role-models into the spotlight, literally, and give them an opportunity to shine in the professional lives.

By purchasing hundreds of search terms on Google and then outbidding anyone who tried buying the same terms in Adwords, Lux pushed women up the search rankings so they would be seen first by people looking to hire.

Searching for a photographer, a potential client would see Huda Beydoun at the top of the page. Looking for a personal trainer, Najia Alfadi’s name was first. A second search result was Lux #IntotheSpotlight, where a landing page showcased the accomplishments of a number of successful women with their contact details.

Videos in social media told the personal stories of Huda Beydoun and Najia Alfadl as well as those of dentist Nouf Sufyamni and creative Sarah Taibah.

Results

Overall brand equity increased from 25.38% (Q1 ’18) to 28.25% (Q1 ’19), an increase of +287 BPS. Lux reached its highest brand relevance score in over two years.

In terms of brand engagement, CTRs were 1.25 times higher than average.

Traffic to MIRAA.me, where the campaign was hosted, increased by 125% while the Lux website received almost 10% more visitors.

In putting such talented women in the spotlight, there was a rise of 15-20% in the number of queries for their professional services.

Our Thoughts

Alan Jope has declared that all Unilever brands will be brands with purpose.

Unilever’s website announces that “In 2018, our 28 Sustainable Living Brands, those taking action to support positive change for people and the planet, grew 69% faster than the rest of our business.” Here’s Lux stepping out where Dove, Knorr, Rexona, Lipton’s and Hellmann’s among others have led the way, helping to create a solution rather than simply highlighting the problem.

This is the essential difference with ‘wokewashing’, where brands may raise an issue but avoid getting involved.

I love it because it’s a benign example of nudge theory at work, changing attitudes without anyone noticing quite how or why.