When parents are expecting a child, they think of various names. As men, we all have a girl name that was destined for us. We all could have been born a girl. Your name may be James, Alessandro or Wei, but you could have been Olivia, Chiara or Li. We all could have been HER - the 1 in 3 women who are victims of violence worldwide. Although one cannot understand what victims experience without having lived through violence oneself, the #ICouldHaveBeen campaign aimed at drawing boy’s and men’s attention to the higher risk of violence girls and women face simply for being born female.

To launch the campaign, we filmed 5 male social media influencers in key markets (France, Italy, US and China) whilst they were calling their parents to find out what could have been their name if they were born a girl and to share it on social media. Simultaneously, 6 male creative directors from Kering also shared their girl name. So as to encourage girls and women to challenge their male friends, we asked a mix of female social media influencers and celebrities (such as brand ambassadors Stella McCartney and Salma Hayek) to call out to the boys and men from their entourage to participate in the #ICouldHaveBeen movement. This mechanism enabled our message to be broadcasted both through traditional media (Vanity Fair, GQ, Cosmopolitan...) and via earned social media mentions throughout the world. In 5 days, the campaign managed to reach and engage GenZers and Millennials globally.

With no media budget, the #ICouldHaveBeen campaign generated:

258M media impressions

850K social interactions on Twitter and Instagram

2 million views for the 5 digital films

28K unique users on the dedicated website over the 5 days of the campaign

51% of people who took part in the campaign were those the Kering Foundation wanted to address, that is to say the hard to reach and engage Generation Z (18-24 yo)

A trending Topic on Twitter France on Nov. 20th 2017