2017 was a landmark year for women. Globally, gender bias and inequality are increasingly being exposed through progressive movements, from the Women’s March to #MeToo to #TimesUp, not only have these movements increased awareness, but are empowering voices to be heard.

Despite this progress, Smirnoff and Spotify discovered that ten out of ten top streamed tracks on Spotify were from men artists. While people began waking up to gender disparity in music, our listening habits didn’t reflect the change we want to see.

In collaboration with Spotify, a partner with a shared passion for improving gender in music, we launched a music platform built for progression, the Smirnoff Equalizer.

Through the Equalizer, users connect to their Spotify accounts to see just how equal, or unequal, their listening habits were, providing a percentage breakdown of the number of men vs. women artists they listen to.

The Equalizer then provided users with an ‘equalized’ playlists of men and women artists based on their listening habits. A ‘slider’ then allowed users to add in even more women artists into their personalized playlist, which they could share via social to encourage further discovery of women artists.

By launching the Equalizer in the run up to International Women’s Day, a day where conversation about gender equality heightens globally, we were ready to move culture one step closer to achieving gender parity through music.

A week before International Women’s Day, The Equalizer debuted at our New York City launch event, showcasing the partnership between Smirnoff and Spotify.

We launched supporting off-platform activations across our key markets through social media (i.e., Facebook, Instagram) and in-market publishers including Elle, Shazam, Vevo and Nine Honey. On International Women’s Day we launched Spotify Homepage Takeovers across our markets to secure strong share of voice.

To go beyond media, we partnered with Global Radio and LiveNation to further gender parity in festival line ups across Europe.

As anticipated, surprised about the lack of women artists in their listening habits, people started to share their results and the world started to notice. Press also got in on the act as the Equalizer secured placements in titles including Billboard, Forbes, Pitchfork, Yahoo and The Independent.

We’ve moved one step closer to achieving gender parity in music and will continue to empower the transformation of listening habits at scale; increasing the number of opportunities for women artists to be heard on the worldwide stage.

Smirnoff transformed peoples’ listening habits:

• +52% increase of women artists streamed through Spotify (average 70% women vs 30% men)

• Created +2.7 million opportunities for women artists to be discovered

Smirnoff raised awareness around gender bias in music:

• +614m impressions (+90% earned)

• +507,000 mentions on social (+78% positive)

Smirnoff empowered people to take action:

• +604,000 people driven to the Equalizer experience

• +193,000 playlists created

Smirnoff strengthen its role in inclusivity:

• +113% increase in people believing Smirnoff makes a difference to gender bias in music

• +32% increase in people believing Smirnoff uses music to bring people together

• +49% increase in people believing Smirnoff welcomes everyone

Our strategy sought to create a platform that would create personalized engagement, offer solutions, and ultimately lead to more discovery, exposure, and opportunity for great women artists.

Through the Smirnoff Equalizer we:

• Presented our audience with their individual music streaming habits highlighting the split of men vs. women artists.

• Empowered them to make change by providing a solution - an ‘equalized’ playlist and slider to add in more women artists.

• Encouraged sharing of their findings with friends through social media.

We amplified our message through:

• A global media partnership and activation with Spotify across our key markets (US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Mexico, Argentina).

• Collaboration with Honey Dijon, the genre-defying DJ, fashion icon and trans rights activist.

• Promotion on social media, and relevant publishers, in select markets where gender equality has high resonance.

It’s music that often fuels good times, bringing people together and creating inclusive moments. But in 2016, Smirnoff realized that the music industry itself wasn’t very inclusive. In fact, in the last six years, less than 10% of artists nominated for Grammys were women.

This is the story of how Smirnoff, an activist brand in music, and Spotify, the world’s largest music platform, came together to transform peoples’ listening habits at scale by increasing the number of women artists they listen to.