Who drives better? Girls or Boys?

Despite being statistically proven to be safer drivers, surveys say that women still feel less confident than men behind the wheel.

A study published by the French National Institute for Travel and Safety showed that the gender stereotypes children are exposed to from an early age have a significant impact on driving confidence in later life.

It reveals that sometimes small actions have big consequence and the reason why many women lack confidence in their driving skills is mostly because they’re not encouraged to play with toy cars when they’re kids, but rather to play in a cautious, soft and sweet behavior with “girly toys”.

Thus, they are conditioned from a young age to feel less confident with cars.

As an automaker, Peugeot decided to put an end to this situation in order to free the new generation of drivers from these gender stereotypes.

Translation of tweets shown in demo film

"Very nice campaign. Bravo"

"The world of cars is indeed not just for men thank you."

Peugeot saw an opportunity for positive change. An opportunity to inspire a new generation of more confident female drivers.

And that led to the campaign GIRLS LIKE CARS TOO.

An initiative that didn’t just question the convention of gifting girls dolls and boys cars. It gave girls the chance to swap their unwanted gifts for Peugeot toy cars.

As simple as that, with GIRLS LIKE CARS TOO, Peugeot offered every girls the opportunity to exchange the gifts they received at Christmas with Peugeot toy cars.

Because what the studies have taught us is that an act as simple as not offering a car to a little girl (because we think "it's not her thing") can have heavy consequences on the perception they have of cars and driving afterwards.

Focusing on this small act that makes all the difference is what made the GIRLS LIKE CARS TOO initiative a real game-changer.

With this campaign, Peugeot decided to go beyond simply raising awareness on gender stereotypes to adopt an active posture giving people a concrete solution to power the change.

But to achieve this it was necessary to address the right audience: not just parents, some of whom are already convinced, but directly children who are the first victims of these stereotypes but also the only ones with whom it is still possible to prevent them.

And to address children and talk to them about toys, what better way to interest them than gifts and what better time than Christmas.

Our strategy was therefore very simple, to treat the problem at the root and to do it at the most crucial moment by offering parents and children a concrete solution: a gift swap opportunity.

Because who has never received a gift they didn't want for Christmas?

Right after Christmas Eve, the campaign consisted of a 30” film that showed girls at Christmas reimagining the stereotypically ‘girly’ toys they received as the toy cars they really wanted all along. This film, used on Digital and Social Media, redirected to an online platform enabling the toy swaps to take place.

The mechanic was simple: all parents and kids had to do was to go on the Peugeot dedicated platform or in a Peugeot dealership and to bring their unwanted gift.

The operation lasted until the end of January and was open to all girls who wanted a toy car but never received one.

What started as a brand activation quickly became a movement and a rally cry for many women drivers who recognize themselves in those littles girls stories full of unwanted pink ponies or barbie dolls.

The need for change was massive and exceed our expectations.

From the launch of the operation, the impact was palpable and the strong resonance with the aspirations of women drivers was visible:

- The digital film introducing the solution totaled over 2.5 million views on Youtube.

- The first days of the campaign saw over 1.2 million people registering for the gift swap just for France. This is still to date the highest number of visits ever recorded on the Peugeot digital Boutique.

- The positive sentiment expressed towards the brand thanks to this activation was over 85% according to Talkwalker.

- In less than 2 days, all the toys available online have been distributed and many media have reported on this initiative.

- This initiatives was relayed in more than 25 countries including Germany, Spain, Portugal, USA, Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, New Zealand, Brunei,…