Cannes Lions
BETC HAVAS, Sao Paulo / SANTANDER / 2024
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Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
Santander needed, once again, to validate its position as a partner bank, supporting women to thrive economically. Our major challenge on the date was not only to speak to mothers. Equity is an essential issue for all women. This means that, in addition to current mothers, our target includes women in general, whether they are customers, non-customers, employees, or future employees of the bank. In practice, we are talking about: Women: economically active, aged 18 or older, residing in any region of the country. Brazil ranks 130th in the world gender pay equity ranking, which demonstrates the importance of the topic in our society. This is compounded by the fact that mothers face even more difficulties, with 1 in 3 women with children in early childhood considering downgrading their careers or resigning and still earning lower salaries than other women.
Idea
Mother's Day historically ranks among the dates that most drive the economy in Brazil. So what's the use of driving the economy on Mother's Day if women's earnings lag behind men's by 21%?
Upon seeing that during seasonal dates, brands often employ emotional discourse, largely focused on gifts, Santander saw an opportunity to innovate and do something different by addressing one of the main problems in our country: the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 21%.
How can we encourage a fairer world and better living conditions for women?
Therefore, Mother's Day 2023 served as a platform for an unprecedented discussion about wage inequality in the mainstream media, with Santander offering a 21% discount on various bank services exclusively for women. Going beyond the date, Santander decided it's not enough to just acknowledge a debt, it needs to be paid.
Strategy
In such a challenging scenario for the individuals celebrated on this day, it's important to move beyond the realm of advertising and take real actions to continue the fight for gender equality. Recognizing the need to impact the reality of mothers, we knew it was important to uphold a discourse built by Santander in the struggle for gender equality, which originated from within the organization. With a bold proposal, Santander decided to address this debt and offer special conditions for women, doing something financially relevant for them. In these special conditions, the bank eliminated the gap, ensuring that wage disparity was transformed into equity in Santander products.
Overall led to extensive PR coverage for Santander, featuring prominently in major media outlets and press nationwide. Across finance portals and platforms championing purpose-driven initiatives, the bank received overwhelmingly positive mentions, resulting in a lasting impact throughout the year as a commendable achievement.
Execution
Through a film broadcasted on both free-to-air and cable television, as well as extensively across the digital sphere including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, we highlighted the issue of wage disparity among women. In the film, we featured real Santander employees from various departments to underscore the authenticity of our commitment to fairer living conditions for women. Throughout the marketing funnel and across all media touchpoints, we tailored the message to fit the formats, placing more emphasis on the objective selling points. In this campaign, Santander utilized all its own communication channels to amplify the impact of the social disparity theme, including bank branches, website, app, OOH strategically distributed across the cities and social media. In social media, we employed a targeted communication strategy focused on the female audience to mitigate negative and destructive comments regarding the urgent need for pay equity between men and women.
Outcome
Faced with such a significant challenge, we not only became a disruptive brand but also achieved extraordinary results for the brand, the business, and society. We recognize this debt and are committed to creating fairer conditions for mothers and women by offering a 21% discount on key bank services. Through social media alone, we achieved 608 million positive impacts and an estimated reach of 69 million people. By undertaking a social debt of R$34 million in exemptions and discounts, we surpassed goals with a return of 5.2. We saw a significant increase: 201% more insurance policies contracted by women, 7% more invoices split by women, 125% more capitalization titles sold to women, 157% more cards issued to women, and 91% more loans granted to women. In addition to the results, we are increasingly closer to having the same number of male and female clients, with a gap of approximately 3%.
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