Our client, Chief, is a private network focused on connecting and supporting women leaders. Their members “are rising leaders making decisions today and influencing change tomorrow”. For this campaign, we also brought in a second partner, The National Women’s History Museum, an organization that "researches, collects and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic and political life of our nation in a context of world history."

The brief from Chief was simple - commemorate Kamala Harris’ achievement in becoming the first woman, the first Black person, and the first Indian-American to hold the position of Vice President.

Our objective was to create something so talkable that it would reach not only liberal and coastal communities but the entire political spectrum, as Chief firmly believed female equality should be an American conversation, not a political issue.

Only 23% of executive roles are held by women Globally, our client, Chief’s mission is to provide a network of support to change that. While they’re focused on breaking the glass ceiling in the boardroom specifically, they also host talks and events that discuss the topic of female equality more broadly.

The idea of a ‘glass ceiling’ is globally recognized.

This idea had a double resonance in the US in 2021. The main piece of context was that on January 20th, 2021 a significant glass ceiling was broken, when Kamala Harris became the first woman, the first Black person, and the first Indian-American to hold the position of Vice President. This moment would be historic in any year, but it felt particularly meaningful in 2021, given we were emerging from a period of sexist and racist rhetoric emanating from the White House, and a commensurate rise in racist attacks.

But secondly, just weeks before the glass breaking of the inauguration, we saw a different and far scarier form of glass breaking, as armed protestors broke into the Capitol building.

So we were celebrating the positive but also reclaiming the meaning of glass breaking.

Our creative idea was simple - to commemorate the iconic moment where the glass ceiling was broken, with a portrait of Kamala Harris, made of broken glass.

This installation was placed on the Washington (DC) Mall at the Lincoln Memorial, just feet away from where Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream” speech, as a powerful symbol and message to future generations. That message? As Kamala said, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”

The installation not only commemorated the glass ceiling being broken, but it also reclaimed the idea of glass breaking from the Capitol rioters days earlier. As our client said, ‘they don’t get to take the meaning of glass breaking away from us.”

In most cases, the role of strategy is to identify an audience and then design a message that will appeal to them. In this case, it was the opposite. We knew what our message was, and we actively wanted it to get in front of both those who would agree with it but also those who may not. We knew if we were only preaching to the converted we were not truly having the impact that we knew this moment deserved.

Every decision we made was with this in mind. Our placement on the mall was intentionally designed to make this an unmissable part of the inauguration story. Our PR-ing of the piece was designed to reach left and right-wing media. Our AR filter was there to provide education on Kamala’s journey, to help convince even skeptics of how incredible this achievement was.

The execution was in three main parts, all completed over a rapid 6-week production timeline. The first was the art-piece itself, a 6’ x 6’ portrait of Kamala Harris, made by hammering broken glass. The artist, Simon Berger, created this in his studio in Basel, Switzerland, and then shipped it (very carefully) to Washington. Simon pioneered this form of art and has perfected it over the years so was the perfect partner to bring to life our vision.

The second asset was an AR filter that lets users scan a custom QR code (designed to look like Kamala) to reveal facts (mapped onto the portrait) about Kamala’s journey. This was all done through Spark AR so functioned through Instagram’s UX without the need for extra downloads.

Lastly, we accompanied the piece with a teaser film that told the story of past and present glass ceiling breakers that paved the way.

The PR uptake of this idea was huge:

-6.26 billion online readership

-90+ broadcast news mentions (local, national and international and from both left and right-wing media).

-112m social impressions

-26k in-person AR filter interactions in just 3 days

As a result, we earned a huge amount of media:

-For every $1 spent on this (total production and media spend) we generated $10 in earned media.

And it made an impact:

-Kamala and her husband both visited, with the latter tweeting his delight at seeing it in person.

-Teachers showed it in their classrooms to inspire young girls to aim high.