On International Women's Day, L'Oréal launched a film about Valentina Sampaio’s true story, a transgender woman who would have her identity documents rectified. For many, taking an ID photo is something that deserves no big attention. But for Valentina, it was the first official photo as the woman she’s always been. L’Oréal supported and empowered Valentina to feel as beautiful as she wanted to be portrayed. It was her first official Women’s Day.

In order to inspire people and transform hate into love, the brand had to the lead against prejudice and violence that still remain alive in Brazil. The idea was to surprise everyone by questioning gender limits and using L'Oréal's own beauty codes to reconnect with the audience in the most sensitive, meaningful and respectful way: recognize beauty in all its expressions and making its slogan, "Because we are all worth it", more relevant and powerful than ever.

With such an original and relevant content we decided to adopt a strategy of credibility to gain legitimacy, by conquering those who already spoke about the issue. Thus, as the film was placed early in the morning to reach the most powerful cultural influencers, later we drove the content, prior to those more sensitive to the content (had as part of their interest topics such as gender equality, feminism, gay and transsexual). It was an “all in a day” timeline buzz: we focused on the film's organic potential, than later our influencers had the exclusive 15” version for their Instagram accounts. By the end of the day we drove the film to the other audiences.

Although our target had a behavioral segmentation we wanted to reach RJ and SP regions the most, as these are the main points of the debate in Brazil. In 24hs the world was touched.

On March 8th, “My First Woman’s Day” was the most watched online video in Brazil. The campaign went viral even before media investments and the was seen almost organically by more than 3,8 million people. It reached a record engagement rate in 24H: 4.216.820.

The film inspired reactions also on influent and famous people with no relation with L’Oréal, who spontaneously shared the message, and it was discussed online and on TV shows in Brazil, encouraging conversations about self-acceptance, female empowerment, transsexualism and gender equality. The campaign impacted people all around the world and was mentioned in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, United States, Canada, Australia, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, England, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, India and China.

Women all over the country said they felt represented by My First Women's Day. Transgender women in Brazil and in the world said they felt empowered by L'Oréal's understanding of feminine beauty. 

With data mining tool Seeker we measured quantitatively and qualitatively the buzz generated in our proprietary channels and also the whole theme in the digital environment.

To be relevant at the heart of gender discussions, we focused on a 100% online strategy and decided to be on Facebook, central place of social discussion in Brazil. The platform was the main environment for the campaign, but Youtube and Instagram also helped to engage with a strategy based on the power of extremely important cultural influencers in order to increase the reach of our message. We also used L’Oréal’s strength and its spokespersons to reach as much Brazilian women as possible with this true story and launch Valentina as a new social ambassador to gender equality causes.

The approach underwent a surgical distribution focusing on those who already had a relationship with the brand or cause, in order to spread the content.

Although Brazil has the most advanced scenario in Latin America in terms of progressive laws concerning gender equality, the country is a place of discrimination, prejudice and violence against women. The country allows gender rectification in official registers but still has the highest transsexual homicide rates in the world: life expectancy for trans people is 30 years old. It's a male dominated society where lesbian women and transgender people are even more vulnerable than gay men.

Inspired by this paradox we had to push the gender conversation further. Since the briefing was to highlight L’Oréal on International Women’s Day in a relevant way to society, we decided to use all its strength as a respected beauty brand in Brazil, along with the power of its spokespersons, to reach as much people as possible on March 8th with the most meaningful message: equality for all, inclusion and respect for every woman.