IDEA

Challenge the idea of who's considered an entrepreneur.

DATA INSIGHTS

The data-driven creative insight was that the female business leaders within H&M Foundation's program for economic empowerment are showing remarkable results, some increasing their income by 400%. In some cases, they increased their income (in %) by more than established companies. This data insight led to the idea to showcase their achievements in the same way you would a male business leader. That is: just like the Fortune 500 power-ranking-list; with power-portraits and business profiles.

CREATIVE DATA INTERPRETATION TO DEVELOP THE STORY

Our campaign is based on H&M Foundation & CARE's data on economic growth within the participants (100,000 women) of their program. Paired with findings from their global report "From Necessity to Opportunity". From the data, we choose the 500 most developed businesses and activated CARE's field organization to distribute a 10-question-survey to the women within their program. The survey questions were about their current and future state of business, competition, plans on employing their workforce, and more.

The collected answers became the core of our storytelling and written business profiles that went into creating the end result: An all-female-power-ranking-list with women from developing countries... The Foundation500.

Most data-based campaigns rely on the data itself to shape the output of the work. These campaigns run the risk of letting data—become—the campaign. The Foundation500-campaign, however, does the opposite. The Foundation500 let's data enhance the creative output to reach other goals; to enable the global public to look at the achievements of female entrepreneurs in a new way, in order to reach the fifth of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Based on data-analysis of 100,000 women whom recieved economic aid to start their businesses, and a targeted survey to the top 500 women with the most developed businesses, the campaign used analogue data-collecting-tools to develop positive storytelling and messages—derived and fuelled by data—to create a powerful brand narrative aligned with the goals and desired outcomes of the client. Mainly: to achieve global reach without a dollar spent on paid media.

For a privately funded non-profit without data at the core of its ”business model”, this is a remarkable achievement. More so, when you realize that for this non-profit, no data comes for free in the form of Google analytics of websites or tracking of app-users. This is real creative data, not tech dressed-up as creativity.

The Foundation500's main goal was to create global reach to change who's considered an entrepreneur. By challenging the famous Fortune500-list, the Foundation500 sparked a change in how female business leaders in developing countries are portrayed by media.

SINCE THE LAUNCH IN JUNE 2017, a number of things have proved that the campaign created a shift in how female business leaders from developing countries are portrayed:

A)Metro published 50 of the list's 500 women on its front-page. In 2018, a Metro United Nations Special Edition, again featured the campaign.

B)Myanmar-based magazine "Myanmore" released an issue with women portrayed in the same style as the Foundation500.

C)CARE changed their coming campaign to align with the theme, now called "Unlikely Entrepreneurs".

D)6 months after campaign launch, long-lead print; Fortune Magazine, published its first issue with a woman on the cover since 2014.

CAMPAIGN RESULTS:

+370 earned media placements about Foundation500 and the women on the list.

5 of 6 Key messages featured in earned media.

88% of articles featured one or more images from the campaign.

98% positive sentiment.

+169 Million in reach within the first 2 weeks.

+150,000 unique visitors to foundation500.com

+67,500 Social Shares

(sources: M-brain intelligence and analysis services, Coveragebook.com)

The Foundation500 is relevant to the Creative Data Lions because it provides a clear line of work that turns numbers into people—by creative interpretation of field data. By combining data from 100,000 women within an economic-empowerment program, field surveys, and the data of Fortune Magazine, the campaign uses data in unexpected ways to develop the story. This idea proves that data isn’t the output of the creativity—but that data is the beginning of creativity…

In this campaign, data enabled the public to look at the achievements of female entrepreneurs in developing countries as equal to men's.

Our campaign is based on H&M Foundation & CARE's data on economic growth within the participants (100,000 women) of their program in 20 developing countries, and was paired with findings from their global report "From Necessity to Opportunity". The data showed a remarkable income growth among participants, which led to a data-driven insight shaping the creative output: The Foundation500, an alternative power-ranking-list with female business leaders from developing countries. Portrayed in the same style and manner as male business leaders; confident, strong, in powerful postures, the campaign challenged the status quo of the male-oriented world of business.

From the data, the 500 most developed female-led businesses were chosen. Also, CARE's field organization distributed a 10-question-survey to the women within their program. The survey asked about their current and future state of business, competition, plans on employing their workforce, and more.

The collected answers were interpreted by our creative team; becoming the core of our storytelling and written business profiles. Altogether creating the end result: An all-female-power-ranking-list with women from developing countries... The Foundation500.

The campaign features over 21 pages of written business profiles, 7400 words, and 42,500 characters; Changing the idea of who's considered an entrepreneur, word by word.

H&M Foundation's mission is to be a catalyst for positive change. And their communicative approach is to use positive storytelling to inspire people, instead of alarming messages that make people feel change is impossible.

Together with humanitarian organisation CARE, the H&M Foundation invests in women’s economic empowerment by equipping women in poor communities with the tools they need to start, develop and grow their businesses. Since 2014, their program has reached over 100,000 women. In some countries, the average rate of increase in income among participants is 202,8%

Brief:

To communicate the effects of the economic empowerment program in a way that makes the global public take notice.

Business Objectives:

-Global reach and awareness in business media and general news, target reach 50M.

-KPI: 40.000 visits to campaign page

Creative Objectives:

-Challenge the stereotype and non-profit category.

-Turn the data into flesh.

-Distinguish H&M Foundation's work from that of H&M-group