In Australia, 83% of female-identifying gamers have experienced offensive behaviour online. So most switch their microphones off to hide their identity, and game in silence.

With almost 50% of the gaming community now female, Maybelline New York wanted to ensure that all women feel confident to be seen, express themselves, create and play in this space. The brief was to change the game.

The Through Their Eyes film documents a social experiment in which we used live voice-changing technology, to disguise two prominent Australian male gamers as female players in an online first-person shooter game. Within less than two hours of play they were bombarded with offensive language and aggressive behaviour. Throughout the filming two high-profile female gamers and Twitch streamers watched on to witness the all-too-familiar scenes.

All four gamers regroup afterwards to have a candid discussion about the events that just transpired, the real female gaming experience and what needs to be done to have an immediate and lasting positive impact. At the film’s conclusion, it was clear that the two male gamers had experienced what it was like to play through a woman’s eyes.

After discovering anecdotal evidence of the harassment facing female-identifying gamers, Maybelline commissioned a national research survey to dig deeper. The results revealed 83% of Australian female gamers had experienced online abuse.

With Gen Z as a core demographic and the exponential increase of young female players in the online gaming world (now almost 50%), we wanted to connect with them, amplify their voices in this space, offer them support and engage them in a way that was meaningful and impactful.

Launching Feb 23, 2023, the film was shared on the social channels of our influencers with a combined audience of 13.5M. As well as featuring on the owned media channels of Maybelline New York and charity organisation ReachOut, national and international media outlets and was screened live at the Eyes Up Cup national gaming tournament, streamed to 17M+ Twitch followers of the 32 professional female gamers participating. Most notably the campaign was organically picked up by UN Women in the lead up to IWD and shared across all their social channels, who commented that the film was “... difficult to watch, but shows we still have a long way to go”.

The campaign achieved a total 449.9M global impressions and an earned media reach of 276.5M+. Of this, 29 articles featured in international gaming news outlets, achieving a cumulative earned media reach of 65.2M+ gamers.

Through social listening we saw a dramatic gender shift in campaign engagement:

Before: Female 72%, Male 28%

Weeks 1 - 2: Female 61%, Male 39%

Weeks 3 - 4: Female 47%, Male 53%

We’ll repeat the research in 6 months to assess evidence of reduced harassment and long-term behaviour change. Leading indicators suggest, in conjunction with increased conversation, participation with Reach Out and healthy positive social sentiment, that shifts in behaviour will be observed.

In terms of brand perception, the campaign positively impacted on the Maybelline brand achieving their highest ever mascara market share 51.93%, outpacing the market by 5x in unit sales, with +19.7 percentage points of market penetration vs last year.