#MarketingExcellenceAwards SG 2021 highlight: How L’Oréal made survivors of domestic violence feel beautiful

When circuit breakers were put in place in Singapore, family violence saw an immense rise. In January 2021, the Singapore Minister of State for Home Affairs said Singapore saw a 10% rise in family violence cases monthly, between April and December 2020. Furthermore, domestic violence is severely stigmatised in Singapore, which is yet another barrier to victims seeking help.

For half a century, L’Oréal has stood for beauty and empowerment. In fact, the brand channels substantial funds and effort each year to the education and empowerment of young women, and seeing this disturbing trend in Singapore pick up pace, it knew this was a cause it had to get behind to instil real change.

L’Oréal’s efforts saw the brand take home the bronze award for excellence in corporate social responsibility at the recent MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Marketing Excellence Awards.

Challenge

Domestic violence, especially against women, is a global public health issue according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and became a more pressing issue amid the pandemic. Because of the pandemic family members were forced to stay at home for prolonged periods, which saw domestic violence issues exacerbated.

Since March 2020, the number of domestic violence cases in Singapore has risen because of factors such as loss of employment, financial insecurity and social isolation measures imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

L’Oréal, being a brand which is an active supporter of survivors of domestic violence and gender-based violence in the workplace, wanted to give power back to women through confidence.

It wanted to highlight that beauty and self-care are closely linked to building confidence and self-love – an important part of the healing journey of domestic violence survivors that is often overlooked

Strategy

L’Oréal recognised that beauty and self-care were important aspects of the healing journey of domestic violence survivors. While some brands choose to send a mass message through advertisements, L’Oréal and its public relations agency Blue Totem Communications aimed to have authentic efforts involving real women, and which impact real women.

Focused on bringing the social issue to the forefront, the campaign wanted to encourage honest conversations online. It decided to start the conversation early with students and first-jobbers aged 18 to 24 who are adventurous, fashionable, and impressionable, with a short attention span. It also wanted to target PMEBs aged 25 to 34 who are sophisticated, discerning, and elegant.

On 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day (IWD), L’Oréal launched its #YouDeserveBetter campaign to create public awareness of the anti-domestic violence cause and encourage survivors to speak out against the violence they endure.

The brand distributed care kits to residents of women shelters, and featured strong pro-empowerment female personalities of influence. Regarding the selection of influencers, it chose women who have always stood in solidarity with other women.

Execution

L’Oréal partnered with United Women Singapore (UWS), a local non-profit that advances women’s empowerment and gender equality, to connect with domestic violence victims across Singapore and help bring L’Oréal’s #YouDeserveBetter campaign to life.

With UWS’ experience in women empowerment initiatives and vast network of supporters, 2,000 self-care kits were delivered to beneficiaries in shelters and homes.

A tangible way of showing them they deserve better, these kits were carefully curated to help encourage survivors to rebuild their confidence through self-care and grooming, an aspect sometimes neglected when organisations render help.

To drive cross-category marketing, the kits comprised skincare, haircare, and beauty products from various L’Oréal brands. Through a holistic campaign, L’Oréal and UWS encouraged the public to speak out against domestic violence and advocate for ways to identify and assist victims.

Influencers across ethnicities, ages, and life stages were the target so as to reach a multitude of different women, as domestic violence can impact women indiscriminately.

Partnering with fellow advocates of the anti-domestic violence cause, such as United Women Singapore, key opinion leaders, and a widely-read online publication, the month-long #YouDeserveBetter campaign gained diversity, insight, and amplification. It also hosted an intimate interview with a survivor of domestic violence.

The month-long duration from March to April was also crucial in gaining traction for the campaign, as the taboo topic gained more media and public attention following various efforts to commemorate IWD.

By broaching the topic of domestic violence in a sensitive and thoughtful manner and sharing anecdotes and avenues of help, influencers eased the public into a topic deeply enveloped in shame and stigma. L’Oréal collaborated with beauty and lifestyle personalities to help champion the anti-violence cause.

Strong, pro-empowerment women themselves, these influencers ranged from young local TV actresses, a famous TikTok comic, and chic mum influencers so as to extend L’Oréal’s reach to the target audiences of mobile-savvy 18-24-year-olds and sophisticated 25-34-year-olds. They invited followers on social media to speak out against domestic violence and shared ways of identifying and helping those experiencing domestic violence.

To further raise awareness and start conversations, influencers offered L’Oréal self-care kits to those who commented or shared relevant messages. L’Oréal also worked with highly popular local media house Mothership to reach a young and socially conscious audience, through a profile interview with a local domestic violence survivor who wished to lend support to others suffering from violence.

Result

L’Oréal’s IWD #YouDeserveBetter campaign sparked open conversations on social media in Singapore about domestic violence – a topic usually avoided because of fear, shame, or guilt. The Mothership profile feature reached more than 100,000 people with nearly 1,000 responses, most of which were highly positive.

The campaign was advocated by 14 media and social media influencers on websites, Instagram, and Facebook, achieving a total reach of 3.5 million.

Notably, the #YouDeserveBetter campaign was featured in Singapore’s Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao, and international news website Yahoo!, and even got Singaporean actress and radio presenter Shamini Gunasagar to raise awareness of the cause on her social media pages.

Readers in Singapore shared questions and comments about the difficulty of leaving home violence situations, and words of encouragement for domestic violence survivors. Other survivors even came forward to share that they had managed to overcome similar hardships and encouraged others to do the same. Friends and acquaintances of influencers reached out privately to them to share their own traumatic experiences, some of which had never before told.

UWS also amplified the campaign’s initiatives via its social media networks, and distributed L’Oréal’s self-care kits to its network of women empowerment supporters to thank them for their efforts thus far.

Ubiquitous mentions and advocacy of L’Oréal’s IWD #YouDeserveBetter campaign inspired open, meaningful conversations across various digital platforms, encouraging the public to break the silence around domestic violence and reminding those who are suffering that they do deserve better.