Woman Interrupted: Woman Interrupted

Credits & Description:

Title: Woman Interrupted
Agency: Betc
Brand: Woman Interrupted
Country: Brazil
Entrant Company: Betc, São Paulo
Advertising Agency: Betc, São Paulo
Pr Agency: Giusti Comunicação Integrada, São Paulo
Production Company: Sentimental Filme, São Paulo / Comando S Audio, São Paulo
Cco: Erh Ray (Betc)
Creative: Rodolfo Barreto (Betc)
Creative: Daniel Schiavon (Betc)
Creative: Nathalie Lourenço (Betc)
Creative: José Bortolini (Betc)
Business: Gal Barradas (Betc)
Business: Camila Nakagawa (Betc)
Channels And Engagement: Carlinha Gagliardi (Betc)
Channels And Engagement: Thiago Fernandes (Bet)
Channels And Engagement: Thiago Costa (Betc)
Channels And Engagement: Rafael Roque (Betc)
Project Manager: Thiago Carneiro (Betc)
Channels And Engagement: Indira Moraes (Betc)
Producer: Teteu Savioli (Betc)
Producer: Júlia Ramos (Betc)
Technology Developer: Brave Team (Brave)
Technical Partners: Onedaytesting Team (Onedaytesting)
Technical Partners: Wewrite Team (Wewrite)
Video Production: Honey Bunny Films Team (Honey Bunny Films)
Video Production: Sentimental Filmes Team (Sentimental Filmes)
Video Production: Comando S Audio Team (Comando S Audio)
Local Pr Agency: Giusti Comunicação Team (Giusti Comunicação)
Synopsis:
Manterrupting: when men interrupt women unnecessarily. This behaviour is so common that it frequently goes unnoticed or is dismissed as if the interruptions resulted from lack of politeness - and not gender inequality. However, a study by George Washington University found that women are interrupted twice as much as man. Another one, by the University of Columbia, shows that female students are interrupted more during classes.At work, studies show that 75% of speaking time during meetings is taken by men. And Manterrupting is one of the factors that reduces the opportunity for women to express themselves and achieve more, as a student, professional or in society as a whole.To fight this, we wanted more than a campaign. We wanted to provide a tool that any woman could use to make herself heard and that had the power to generate awareness around the issue.
Strategy:
The insight for the app idea came from the buzz around manterrupting, caused by the USA presidential debates. We searched for data in certified studies, and had the absolute confirmation that manterruption was not only a worldwide fact, but also a gender inequality consequence.We targeted female but also male users - as the majority of men don't realize they actually interrupt women, the app is a tool to monitorate himself. Also, due to focus on work/business usage, data security was #1 precaution.To promote its launch, we focused on a PR based strategy, launching two days before International Woman’s Day and leveraging on the subject relevancy at that time. It quickly got the attention from media outlets from all over the globe, as the top publishers received our media kit. Besides PR, the app was promoted with a hotsite, Out of Home, Digital media, and a custom Spotify playlist.
Execution:
All was done in order to launch the app when people are more willing to debate gender equality: Women’s International Day. On March 6th, media kits and press releases were sent to top publishers around the world, focusing on hard news, female content and technology vehicles allowing them to prepare news in time for the International Woman’s Day. The project’s website offered a complete media kit with press release, vídeos and posters.On march 8th, we launched the Portraits of Silence, a collection of more than 80 posters representing the silencing of women, illustrated by worldwide artists -so another PR effort was made, now focused on art&design and adverising publishers.To keep the subject a hot topic on the following weeks, we started a global media strategy that included specially Digital Media and OOH Media (Street Clocks, Bus stops, Airports and a Times Square Billboard).
Relevancy:
More than just an innovative app created to fight gender inequality, Woman Interrupted functioned as a powerful conversation piece that attracted the attention of the global media to subjects such as Manterruption, women in the workplace and technology. The project made headlines in 36 countries, was published in more than 250 news sites and blogs around the globe that resulted in more than U$7.5 in earned media. In a time where the president of a powerful country interrupted his female opponent more than 50 times in an electoral debate, discussing and fighting manterrupting couldn’t be more relevant.
Campaign Description:
We wanted to create more than a campaign, but something that every woman around the globe could use to prove Manterrupting is real, and help men to reduce this behaviour. The smartphone was the perfect answer: a device that people already carry around, equipped with a microphone. So we developed Woman Interrupted, an app that analyses conversations in real time and shows how much the user was interrupted (female users) or how much he interrupted a woman (male users). The app uses a calibration and the difference between the frequency of male and female voices to measure the interruptions. The campaign was launched just before International Woman’s Day and included a gallery with more than 80 posters, a hotsite, and media that was donated to the project, such as out of home ( for instance, a whole month in Times Square), digital media, a custom playlist created by Spotify and much more.
Outcome:
The app escalated quickly: over15.000 downloads within the first days in 57 countries. It also made headlines in 36 countries, featured in TV programs from networks such as FOX News, CNBC and CNN. It was also published in 250 news websites and blogs, from New York Times, El País, DailyMail, Huffpost and BBC to others like FastCompany, Mashable and Cosmopolitan.All those spontaneous media resulted in more than U$7.5 million in earned media, and 700 million impacts. The discussion spread to social media, impacting another 12 million people.In paid media, the estimated impacts were approximately 75 million, while not a dollar was spent - all the formats were 100%donated - from a Spotify playlist, through OOH activations to a Times Square double billboard for an entire month.But no doubts the most important result was successfully reached: raising worldwide awareness and debate around Manterrupting and gender inequality.