To gain a fresh and sharable perspective on the gender pay gap we created a social experiment captured by a documentary film maker.

Brothers and sisters were asked to do chores around the house. We then paid them for the work, but we paid the boys more money than the girls, just like in the real world.

The films show their spontaneous and 100% unscripted responses to the inequity.

Then we told them that this happens in real work places, and captured their responses once again.

Their sheer indignation at the inexplicable injustice and ever so cute proposals to remedy the situation provided us with our material.

We put the films on social media across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and released it to targeted media and news outlets encouraging them to run it on International Women’s Day.

Filmed at the end of February, the ‘Pocket Money’ films launched on Tuesday March 8 on International Women's Day.

The films (varying lengths of 90 and 45) ran online for 4 weeks, then received further funding for an additional 4 weeks, taking us through to the end of April. Given the success, the 90” film also had a short run in cinema in April.

Pushed out via ANZ’s own social channels as sponsored posts, shorter length ‘pocket money’ films were used as additional social posts with ANZ statistics about the gender pay gap.

Online films were implemented as pre-rolls across YouTube (first watch on International Women's Day) & Catch-up TV. This included a mix of TrueView, nonskip, premium network and Catch-up TV (7, 9, 10)

The success of the campaign was largely as a result of targeted mainstream media and social influencers sharing the video with their audiences.

• Tier 1

Tracking research shows significant positive impact on corporate reputation, brand image and purchase intent.

Recognition of ANZ’s International Women’s Day campaign almost tripled the result achieved for the original 2015 campaign – "driving broader more mainstream reach".

Internal stakeholders significantly impacted, renewing their diversity commitment from CEO to HR to Sponsorship – with interest expressed across the board at ANZ in leveraging this campaign further.

• Tier 2

10% increase in overall Corporate Reputation (15% amongst men). Corporate Reputation is very difficult to shift as there are so many contributing factors.

• Tier 3

#equalfuture trended on International Women’s Day.

In just six weeks…

Over 12million views across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, (67% organic)

ANZ’s most organically viewed online film ever.

The total reach over 1.5 billion.

In 93 countries.

PR value over $38m

Highest ever traffic to the anz.com/women website (25% higher than launch campaign)

In 2015 ANZ Bank launched the #equalfuture initiative putting real changes in place to help women build their financial strength and realise a more equal future. This campaign culminated in the establishment of a Senate Inquiry into women’s financial equality in Australia, with ANZ invited to make the opening address.

To cement their position in the public mind and hearts as champions for women’s financial equity, it was important we accelerate the spread of ANZ’s message beyond the political and academic arena and get it into the mainstream, spark conversation and get #equalfuture out there.

Our objective was to drive mainstream and popularist appeal, primarily amongst women but also men.

Using real life brothers and sisters and their spontaneous responses made the issue of financial inequality not just about the ‘woman in the office’ but about something people could relate to in their own lives, increasing the likelihood of sharing.

To be shared, it first needed to be discovered. Securing coverage within popularist media was key - with mothering sites, general interest and news ‘lite’ style sites being the focus of our PR pitch.

Pitching the film as a social experiment for International Women’s Day, the PR agency directly approached key mainstream media and social influencers asking them to share the videos with their audience.

Every piece of communication featured the #equalfuture hashtag and a link to the website about the meaningful changes ANZ are making for female employees and consumers.

In 2015, ANZ Bank took a strong stance on equality. They launched their #equalfuture initiative with the aim to support women and put real changes in place to help women build financial strength and realise a more equal future.

A key component of the campaign was the ANZ Women’s Report which collated the statistical facts of financial gender inequality in Australia. With a gender pay gap of 18.8% in Australia , the report identified that over a 40-year career, the pay gap between genders equates to in excess of $700,000.

ANZ wanted to accelerate the spread of their message and get financial inequality talked about, in the mainstream International Women’s Day represented a great opportunity to target the media to put ANZ’s message back in the spotlight and further fuel the #equalfuture conversation.