In 2016, when I was the editor of a women's rights magazine, the creative agency Shackleton approached me to build a little something together. As Christmas drew closer and closer, we wanted to highlight the work women do to welcome the family over the holidays and all too often go unnoticed.
Finding the right presents for every family member, choosing the menu, buying and cooking the ingredients, decorating the house, making everyone feel comfortable... A lot of the work is unseen and very much gendered.
Of course, this is not true for every household, but unfortunately, statistics have it that it's true in most.
So we decided to create a video advert for a fake product: the Mother Seater.
The Mother Seater is a belt with a 3-digit lock, known only to the wearer. No more getting up in the middle of dinner to turn off the oven, bring the mains or refill glasses.
It went absolutely viral
This campaign gained over 2 million views on Facebook, 850K views on YouTube (in its Spanish version) and wen't absolutely viral over WhatsApp. We gained coverage in over 1.000 publications, including the likes of El Mundo, El País and even Buzzfeed. The press went absolutely crazy for it and we featured in all the main TV channels in Spain, such as La Sexta, Telecinco, Antena 3 and TVE 1.
In this clip from La Sexta, which was aired on the news Christmas eve, you can watch me talk about why we created this campaign to push women's rights.
What I learned
This was an amazing experience. Dealing with tens of journalists a day, on top of my day job and my personal life was exhausting, but I honestly had a lot of fun and grew professionally.
My main takeaways are:
Uphold your values. Brands that commit to a social cause are not just shaping a better world, they're more likeable and relatable. Consumers in this day an age know that they can change the world through their purchases and are more likely to be loyal to your brand if you share their values.
Be bold. In the current digital space, you have a fraction of a second to capture the attention of your users or journalists. Watered down ideas will get you nowhere. Unleash your creativity to build something unique.
Get silly. As an activist, I know that laughter is absolutely key to communicate and persuade. In the words of dear old Mary Poppins "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way".
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