3 Years of #fearlessgirl and what it takes to go Viral!

State Street Global Advisors had launched a fund. This was not their first fund, nor was this their last. In fact, State Street Global Advisors, the investment management division of State Street Corporation is the world’s fifth largest asset manager, with nearly $2.8 trillion in assets under management as of 31 December 2017. This particular fund, however, was a unique one. Called SHE, the fund tracks a market cap-weighted index of US large-cap companies with a relatively high proportion of women in executive and director positions. The fund evaluates the 1000 largest US firms for the ratio of women on the board of directors and in executive positions (defined as Sr. VP or higher). Companies ranking in the top 10% in each sector are included in the portfolio, with the caveat that each firm must have at least one woman on its board or as CEO. Holdings are market cap-weighted. Selecting firms by sector and weighting them by market cap means that SHE’s performance shouldn’t depart radically from the broad market, appealing to investors who want neutral large-cap coverage while still supporting the fund’s principles.

SHE launched in March 2016. McCann had the task of launching this fund. The brief called for a print ad, but McCann saw an opportunity to deliver a message instead of merely launching a fund. It became a larger calling to raise awareness about the lack of gender diversity in corporations, especially in the boardroom of financial institutions. The team at McCann in partnership with an amazing and willing client spent a year bringing this idea to life. Launched in the dead of night, on the eve of International Women’s Day 2017, the world woke up to find this little girl standing up to the daunting Wall Street bull, no less.

Within hours, the fearless girl had gained over 1 billion twitter impressions, becoming an overnight sensation. The statue quickly became a symbol of hope and assertion, drawing millions of people to NY who came see her, hug her, take pictures and add their own messages to the one that she stood for. The campaign launched in the dead of night, with little to no publicity and ended up generating over 10 billion social, print and digital media impressions while galvanizing people across six continents.

Fearless girl was only supposed to be placed on Wall Street for 72 hours but her presence created a movement that civilians filed petitions for her to stay permanently. After being on Wall Street since Nov 2018, she has now finally found her forever home in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Was the campaign successful? Well, Not only did it win several national and international awards, including all the major ones at Cannes, but the fearless girl also delivered on its core promise of promoting the SHE fund: Under Management for the fund grew 8% to $315 million after the campaign. Not only that, but In just 2 years, the fearless girl campaign inspired more than 420 companies globally to add a female director board member to their previously all-male boards.

I had an opportunity to chat with the talented Gemma Craven and learn more about the campaign. She was part of the core team that worked tireless for an entire year to bring this idea to life. The work for the team included finding the sculptor, permissions from the city of New York to place the statue and ensuring that it all comes to life in the middle of the night!

The client did their part too: In true partnership, on the day of the launch, State Street Global Advisors called upon thousands of companies in their investment portfolios in the US, UK and Australia, urging them to increase the number of women on their corporate boards. They issued guidance to help them take action and became the first large US asset manager to announce that they would not hesitate to use their proxy voting power if companies failed to take action.

Fearless girl continues to find a voice across the globe. For this year’s International Women’s Day, a replica of the Fearless Girl statue was installed in London’s Paternoster Square, against the backdrop of St. Paul’s Cathedral and facing the London Stock Exchange. She continues to reinvent investing by changing the way we think about corporate performance. “We are delighted to welcome Fearless Girl not only to the City of London, but to our home at Paternoster Square,” said David Schwimmer, CEO of London Stock Exchange Group. “The London Stock Exchange Group fully supports her mission of raising awareness of the importance of diversity on boards and within senior corporate leadership.”

So many companies have discussed what it takes to make a social campaign go viral. I was in the audience when the then Worldwide Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy, Miles Young, spoke the Doves Portraits campaign and what it takes for social campaigns to go viral. The crux of it was that nobody knows. However the fearless girl campaign offers a few pointers. It had a clear brief (launch the SHE Fund), an agency that was perceived as a partner, and a fearless, visionary client who was ready to fight all odds to bring the idea to life. It took an entire year for this idea to be born. Today’s briefs reek of deliverables that need to be out of the door in 72 hours. Not all campaigns need to be a year long but it does show that if planned well and executed with precision while having your ears to the ground to better understand social sentiment, the chances of a campaign resonating locally as well as worldwide, thereby going viral, is very high. #Fearless girl proves it and still remains one of my all-time favorite campaigns. Here’s a picture of my daughter with the fearless girl, within days of its launch on Wall Street.

Join me every week, as we navigate these ever-changing waters to make sense of this ‘always-on’, ‘always-connected’ consumer and the technologies that define their everyday. I will be bringing you insights from some of the sharpest global minds in the industry as well as in academia. And do join the conversation.

Until next week

Anika

A seasoned Advertising and Digital expert, Anika has worked across countries and continents and spoken at companies such as Google and universities such as New York University. She is currently Professor of Business at New York University’s Stern School of Business, teaching Digital marketing, Social Media, Mobile and Digital Strategy. Follow Anika on twitter @anikadas.

©AnikaSharma. No part of this article can be used without explicit permission. All rights reserved.