1 out of 2 women around the world are judged for expressing themselves differently. They face up to 15 sexist judgements daily and 70% of such judgements are related to their appearance. *

On social media, it gets worse. A Twitter search (2 year stats) revealed startling facts

• 9,764,583 trolls were related to judgements and labels

• 2.9 million yearly tweets had gendered insults (e.g., “bitch,” “cunt,” “slut,” or “whore”)

• 19,000 sexist slurs in a day

As a brand, Lux takes a stand wherever women are judged and labelled as Lux believes in inspiring women to rise above everyday sexist judgements and express their beauty and femininity unapologetically. With the amount of judgements women in China face every day, Lux felt that it was apt to play a role in silencing judgements in line with its brand purpose.

*Global Nielsen Study

Using music and entertainment as a platform and a catalyst for change, Lux co-created an anti-bullying music campaign with rising star Dylan Xiong and singer songwriter Tifa Chen incorporating 'labels' in their music and empowering women in China to be unstoppable against these labels. The music of Kelly Clarkson's 'Stronger' was used due to its immense popularity in China as a double whammy for memorability.

Dylan’s massive popularity and un-stereotypical views were deliberately chosen to tap into China’s idol culture to deliver the strong concept of male ally-ship and smashing various labels such as 'materialistic', ‘flower vase’: pretty but empty, 'scheming' and even 'green tea bitch!' Unlike the typical sweet romantic songs, Dylan chose to do a rousing pop anthem to drive home the point. Social listening and the use of data was used to understand the labels women faced when it came to everyday sexism and judgements.

Chinese Gen Z accounts for 15% of China’s population and Lux’s key audience. 88% of Gen Z use mobile for social interaction, entertainment. Apart from social media consumption(87%), they also watch video content(78%) and listen to radio / streaming music(58%) on their phones with the top passion point being music(81%).

With technology being so prevalent, Gen Z is more exposed to judgements and labels. They take shape in the form of creative labels such as ‘Green Tea Bitch’ and 'Flower Vase’ ‘Bimbo’ etc. If you like to dress up, you are often labelled a ‘temptress’ simply because of the way you express yourself.

We saw the opportunity to use music strategically to drive Lux’s brand purpose

- 72% of Gen Z listens to music avg.16 hours per week

- Music is a platform for them to look up to celebrities for inspiration

- Music drives culture

Source: McKinsey report 2020

Using a mobile first package along with partnerships and activation, this campaign drove scale to drive real impact in China via pop culture. We used

a) Music DSPs: Tapping into top music platform apps namely, QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, Netease Music, Micu Music

b) Partnership with ??????? 2 (Sisters Who Make Waves 2) using celebs who are 'labelled'

c) Top-reach social/mobile platforms: Weibo, WeChat, TikTok, MangoTV

d) Leveraging artist’s social handles for reach and attention: Weibo and Tik Tok in China, Philippines, Vietnam and across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

e) Seeding through KOLs and communities on WeChat to build anticipation and excitement

f) PR with leading industry publications

g) Use of #topics# (Weibo) to generate conversations around the campaign

h) Additional paid media to increase reach of posts

Using mobile also created an interactive space that encouraged users to participate and respond instantaneously.

Media/PR:

• Achieved over 1.2 billion impressions

• Music video reached over 342 million consumers in China

• Total engagement and online conversations achieved: 495K

• Gained over 1.57 billion impressions in PR across 297+ news outlets

Business:

+17.5% sales uplift in April 2021 YoY

Consumer Core: Gen Z

• Accounted for 95.9% of total buzz generated on Weibo and over-indexed against Weibo average in terms of buzz generated (Campaign 53.6% vs Weibo benchmark 44.0%)

• 8.8% of Weibo buzz spoke positively (no negative sentiments)

• Positive sentiments (28.2%)

• Neutral sentiments (71.6%)

Overall Lux’s score on ‘inspiring women to express their beauty confidently’ increased by +10% impacting a positive shift in brand equity in China. Qualitatively, women loved that a male celebrity was cheering women to smash judgements. “Thank you for taking a stand and encouraging us. Listening to your song, I already feel unstoppable.”