At the 2017 Cannes Lions, Twitter hosted an event to celebrate women in the media, creative, and technology industries, similar to the women-led panel at CES and inspired by the Oscars #TimesUp initiative. Twitter set out to use the Cannes Lions event to create an emotive film that highlighted and raised awareness of women as powerful figures; a film that could then reach a far larger audience online. With this big event and the help of award-winning poet Denice Frohman, a black-and-white made-for-mobile film was created and shared with the Twitter audience on International Women’s Day. Twitter then customized the #HereWeAre film for the Japanese audience to ensure the message was shared with women globally and with one of Twitter’s most important Asian markets.

The #HereWeAre film was inspired by the Twitter CES event, along with the appropriate timing of the Oscars #TimesUp initiative. During the Cannes Lions event, Twitter created a powerful black-and-white film featuring the words of poet Denice Frohman, along with the portraits of several influential women from media, creative, and tech. Then to reach a global audience, Twitter customized the same video and shared the #HereWeAre film for the Japanese audience to ensure the message was shared on an international scale and with one of Twitter’s most important Asian markets.

#HereWeAre gained enormous traction and we wanted to give it a bigger platform still, transforming it from an industry benchmark to a consumer movement. Following the revelations that have empowered women in the film industry in recent months, resulting in the #TimesUp initiative, the 2018 Oscars provided the opportunity for us to show the world that gender equality is a staunch principle of Twitter’s. Taking the original #HereWeAre film, shot at Cannes Lions, Twitter repurposed and customized the film for the Japanese audience — one of its biggest Asian markets. The Japanese version has gained over 59K views, 630 Retweets, and 900 likes.