The campaign relied heavily on our four key influencers, all professional gamers and content creators across Twitch, Tik Tok, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Not only were we wanting to engage their combined 13M+ followers, but they were integral to the social experiment we were conducting.

The social experiment was filmed and shared via the influencers social networks, as well as broadcast at a national gaming tournament that saw 32 of the countries top professional gamers participate and share their experience with the legions of fans online through Twitch in real-time.

The work seeks to highlight the significantly different experience that many female-identifying gamers have, when compared to their male-identifying counterparts. It’s not acceptable that female-identifying gamers experience such disproportionate levels of toxic abuse - with 83% reporting that they had experienced bullying or harassment online.

But beyond just being an awareness piece, the campaign aimed to engage the male-identifying community in a way that hasn’t been done before - including them as part of the ongoing conversation, empowering them to call out behaviour when they see it online, and giving people a platform for which to talk about the ongoing injustice faced by female-identifying gamers in this space.

Finally, with respected international gaming publishing the campaign and sharing the film, it’s an issue that has been seen to be taken seriously. And now has the attention of the industry and gaming world.

We set out to show male gamers what it was like to play through a woman’s eyes. Two prominent Aussie male gamers had their real identities disguised with voice modification software and fake female profiles in an online first-person shooter game. They experienced first-hand the level of constant abuse and bullying experienced by the opposite sex.

Shared out by our four gamer influencers, the film quickly resonated with the online gaming community and beyond. Appreciating they’d been heard, female-identifying players shared their stories, many who had been hiding in silence for over ten years, and most importantly millions of male gamers called for others to stand up and say something.

Then during IWD week 32 top female gamers joined the cause at a live national tournament, where they played on a custom Fortnite map and told their combined audience of 17M to keep their eyes up and call out abuse.

Sadly, before even starting a game, most female & LGBTQIA+ gamers modify their behaviour to feel safe. Furthermore, female gamers were significantly more likely to believe that harassment in online gaming needs to be addressed, 68% (compared to 45% males). With some male gamers going as far as saying, It’s just part of th gaming, demonstrating this is becoming an accepted behaviour in the gaming space.

Our strategy was not just to simply shine a light on an existing problem, but to amplify the silent voices on the subject matter, create allies to ensure the possibility of a safer and more respectful online gaming world. Further to this, we wanted to shift the conversation from being between female gamers, and place the onus on males, because if the game is truly going to change, it starts with changing their current behaviour.

Launching Feb 23, 2023, the film was shared on the social channels of our influencers with a combined audience of 13.5M. As well as featuring on the owned media channels of Maybelline New York and charity organisation ReachOut, national and international media outlets and was screened live at the Eyes Up Cup national gaming tournament, streamed to 17M+ Twitch followers of the 32 professional female gamers participating. Most notably the campaign was organically picked up by UN Women in the lead up to IWD and shared across all their social channels, who commented that the film was “... difficult to watch, but shows we still have a long way to go”.

The campaign achieved a total 449.9M global impressions and an earned media reach of 276.5M+. Of this, 29 articles featured in international gaming news outlets, achieving a cumulative earned media reach of 65.2M+ gamers.

Through social listening we saw a dramatic gender shift in campaign engagement:

Before: Female 72%, Male 28%

Weeks 1 - 2: Female 61%, Male 39%

Weeks 3 - 4: Female 47%, Male 53%

We’ll repeat the research in 6 months to assess evidence of reduced harassment and long-term behaviour change. Leading indicators suggest, in conjunction with increased conversation, participation with Reach Out and healthy positive social sentiment, that shifts in behaviour will be observed.

In terms of brand perception, the campaign positively impacted on the Maybelline brand achieving their highest ever mascara market share 51.93%, outpacing the market by 5x in unit sales, with +19.7 percentage points of market penetration vs last year.

Maybelline New York believes that everyone should feel free to express themselves, to play and to create. However, the online gaming world is one place where some can’t. Due to the constant abuse faced by female identifying gamers online many hide their identities and play in silence, or not at all. In fact, most do not feel comfortable in this environment to express their true selves, play in an equitable manner or share their experiences through social media platforms - which flies in the face of every aspect of the aforementioned brand purpose.

The evidence that people suffer from skyrocketing amounts of harassment online also links to the brand’s existing platform Brave Together, a global mental health program to destigmatise anxiety and depression, and direct individuals to support services.

We felt it was time to change the game for good, and create safer spaces for everyone to play.