L’Oreal Paris and McCann Germany’s ‘This is for men’ social media campaign aims to spark conversation on the role of women in leadership roles. Although exceeded by men in numbers, German female leaders outperform males, but many struggle to get sufficient support to help them progress.
The social media campaign, standing for female empowerment in leadership, was conceptualised after the brand's research into management boards. Conducted with McCann Worldgroup Deutschland, L'Oreal discovered that 91.4% of the management boards in Germany are male. Further research showed that when women do reach the top, they significantly outperform their male peers. It became clear that when women occupied 30% of management positions, profitability increased by 15%. And, while female executives perform 24% above men in management reviews, firms that employ more women leaders generate around 20% more patents annually. To spread these findings, McCann created a series of print ads directed at men that aim to alter the perception of women in leadership using L’Oreal products to build infographics.
Female executives outperform their male's counterparts, but many mid-career women struggle with a lack of recognition in the workplace and struggle to find the confidence needed to climb up the ladder. In Germany, 56% of companies believe that a lack of skilled workers is the biggest risk their company faces. Also, with many German mums not returning to full-time work, companies want to give women the confidence to become leaders. Companies have to put their efforts into empowering women workers and should include men in the process too. L'Oréal’s campaign shows that empowering women by challenging and turning gender stereotypes on their head can be done with a light, humorous approach to drive home a message.
Mira Kopolovic is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8. She has a Master’s degree that focused on visual culture and artist-brand collaborations, and spends her spare time poring over dystopian literature.
