Almost 50% of the current online gaming community in Australia are female-identifying. In 2022, Maybelline commissioned a survey of gamers in Australia and discovered 83% of female-identifying gamers have experienced offensive behaviour online, resulting in most turning off their microphone to hide their identity. Research has demonstrated that this type of continual harassment can lead to anxiety and depression. Furthermore, the male perpetrators involved are participating in a learned systemic behaviour that manifests itself offline in their future relationships, leading to domestic violence. By minimising and/or preventing this abuse, bullying and aggression in these gaming communities future damage can hopefully be mitigated.

Launched in the leadup to, our campaign perfectly aligned with the theme of International Women’s Day 2023 - addressing inequality in the digital world.

We also partnered with charity organisation ReachOut, the world’s first online mental health support organisation, to offer resources to those suffering harassment online.

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.

A national survey was commissioned into the level of discrimination across all genders in the Australian gaming space, which revealed 83% of female identifying and 50% of LGBTQIA+ identifying gamers have directly experienced and/or observed offensive behaviour or language while online gaming, with most female identifying and LGBTQIA+ identifying players admitting to turning off their microphone when playing to hide their gender and avoid harassment.

This exposed a failure at an industry level to support women in gaming and facilitate safe online communities free of discrimination. A toxic and misogynist environment that was preventing female-identifying players from properly engaging and having the opportunity to elevate into professional gamer roles.

On a global level, the existence of inequality in the digital world was recognised and documented by the United Nations as it echoed through their 2023 international theme - DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality for IWD, March 8 2023.

The Through Their Eyes film documents a social experiment in which we used live voice-changing technology, to disguise two prominent Australian male gamers as female players in an online first-person shooter game. Within less than two hours of play they were bombarded with offensive language and aggressive behaviour. Throughout the filming two high-profile female gamers and Twitch streamers watched on to witness the all-too-familiar scenes.

All four gamers regroup afterwards to have a candid discussion about the events that just transpired, the real female gaming experience and what needs to be done to have an immediate and lasting positive impact. At the film’s conclusion, it was clear that the two male gamers had experienced what it was like to play through a woman’s eyes.

After discovering anecdotal evidence of the harassment facing female-identifying gamers, Maybelline commissioned a national research survey to dig deeper. The results revealed 83% of Australian female gamers had experienced online abuse.

With Gen Z as a core demographic and the exponential increase of young female players in the online gaming world (now almost 50%), we wanted to connect with them, amplify their voices in this space, offer them support and engage them in a way that was meaningful and impactful.

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.