The short film we created for P&G took on one of the most salient issues of our time and brought it to a worldwide audience. The Words Matter celebrated the 25th anniversary of the inclusion of sexual orientation in P&G’s EEO statement, thanks to determined efforts by LGBT activist and retired P&G lab tech Michael Chanak.

Procter & Gamble was a premiere sponsor of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, including an ad that featured Team U.S.A. skier Gus Kenworthy for Head & Shoulders. Kenworthy is the first “out” action-sports athlete. The commercial prompted a larger discussion about P&G’s history, which ultimately led our team to Michael Chanak, the P&G lab tech and vocal gay rights advocate who led the charge 25 years ago.

Chanak worked tirelessly to finally add sexual orientation to P&G’s equal employment opportunity (EEO) statement of diversity. The film recounts the story of his fight and the legacy he created at P&G.

After collecting Chanak’s story and analyzing the documents (as well as historical data), we developed the core storyline of the film. The final elements included combing through hours of archival footage and rendering the final product in the tell-tale visual and narrative style of our platform.

We knew that this story was bigger than just a brand story, and P&G’s commitment to inclusivity was more than just lip service. Thus, we needed to put this authentic story in front of the right audience in a way that conveyed the film’s depth—which was not always flattering to P&G. The targeting, messaging, cut-downs, and social media posts needed to be very carefully considered for an audience wary of “inclusive” messaging from major corporations. We used our proprietary social platform to identify and target receptive audiences who were Liking, sharing, and talking about these issues (and even the Kenworthy commercial).

The Words Matter was the first long-form storytelling content piece for P&G. The film brought together our extensive interview footage with Chanak, as well as other key stakeholders at P&G, archival footage, and visual elements that are synonymous with our video platform.

We also coordinated live events in New York City and Cincinnati that featured a discussion with U.S. Olympic Medalist Gus Kenworthy, P&G's Chief Diversity Officer William P. Gipson, and P&G's Associate Director of Global Beauty Communications Brent Miller. This event was not only a PR push for the film, but it also served as a forum for honest, candid discussion of LGBTQ rights in the workplace, where we’ve been, and where we should be headed.

The Words Matter garnered:

3.42% engagement rate amongst viewers with an affinity towards social causes and short films. (+2.5X higher than our average documentary film).

32% completion rate on YouTube among first-party audiences and people interested in human rights and liberties (53% higher than our average documentary film).

1.5% engagement rate on Facebook (26% higher than our average documentary).

6.8% completion rate on Facebook (66% higher than our average documentary film).