Poland is in the 23rd place in the EU in terms of gender equality. 2021 saw a backwards step for women’s rights in Poland, as a near-total ban on abortion caused massive outrage. The demand for restoring women’s rights has not only been limited to reproductive rights, but has become a broader movement challenging the status quo on women’s issues.

There has never been any mainstream Polish campaign that showed Polish women celebrated for their authentic selves and diversity. In a country where breastfeeding is shamed, showing real women is an act of defiance and bravery.

YES is a local brand that decided to be brave and fight against all these stereotypes.

The brief was to break, in a fresh way, into a new mainstream of contemporary women who can reconcile female power and pride with style and looks, and treat jewelry as an embodiment of one’s personal style.

Women in Poland hear the word “NO” too often. YES, a Polish jewelry brand made by women for women, wants them to hear “YES” instead.

That’s why we created the campaign “I'm a Woman”. A campaign aimed at paying tribute to all Polish real women - their diversity, courage, independence, emotions, and sensitivity.

The main piece of the campaign was a film in which we portrayed strong and exceptional women being who they really are: a influencer mom breastfeeding her kid in public; an Olympic runner-up displaying her love for her girlfriend; a cancer survivor encouraging people to get tested and prevent breast cancer; a woman who became a model at the age of 74 and proves that beauty has no age, and plus-size model who defies societal body expectations.

We knew we were doing something right when TVP, Polish public television controlled by the right-wing government, censored its broadcasting.

Women in Poland hear the word “NO” too often. NO to breastfeeding in public spaces, NO to looking natural, NO to being single, NO to free love, NO to ageism, NO to originality or being different from the norm.

We wanted to start a discussion about the meaning of being a woman in this time and day in a country like Poland. The campaign “I'm a Woman” was aimed at paying tribute to real Polish women - their diversity, courage, independence, emotions, and sensitivity. The main message being “I am a woman, because I feel like one”.

We targeted women 35-45 y.o who think differently, value diversity, are far from being clichés and have the courage to fulfill their own ideas about life.

The main pieces of the campaign, in which we portrayed strong and exceptional women were a film, print and OOH campaign, communication in stores and social channels.

The campaign kicked-off with the main film, which started airing at the beginning of November 2021, in time for the Holiday season.

This film was made available at the same time on every major TV channel (aside from the right-leaning public TV, which decided not to broadcast it), the 3 biggest cinema chains in Poland, owned and influencer Social Media channels and VOD platforms, along with a prominent PR coverage in different lifestyle magazines and portals.

A few days after the film aired, we continued the campaign narrative with a print campaign in which we portrayed the heroines from our film along with powerful and inspiring messages. Those images were displayed in YES stores all around the country, website, social channels and OOH.

Lastly, we also created a TV sponsorship billboard featuring Neo Mosa, a gender fluid person stating that “I am a woman, because I feel like one”.

This campaign broke the mould of how women are portrayed in mainstream campaigns, especially in the beauty and fashion industries, and received spectacular reactions from the Polish audience; it was visible, it strongly resonated culturally and it created a fully organic effect in terms of results.

Huge influencers were sharing and praising the campaign organically, starting with the most popular blogger in Poland: Maffashion (1,4 Million followers). Thanks to her interaction, YES’s post reached 292.545 contacts. Another influencer who shared it was model Natalia Siwiec (1,3 mln followers), leading in her case to 272.311 contacts.

Additionally, the original post containing the main film, reached staggering metrics in every social platform. Almost 1.5 Million views on Youtube. 17.000 reactions, 604 comments and 2.9K shares on Facebook and 488.000 views, 3.809 comments and 118.000 likes on Instagram.

In the first 2 weeks of the campaign - before the TV leg of the campaign even started - YES organically acquired a 7.348% increase in brand mentions.

The campaign generated organically 32 million contacts with the brand online - out of which 25 million were just the first two weeks. This volume would not have been reached through its emission in the public TV, which finally forbade its emission.

Overall, the obtained Advertising Value Equivalent amounted to 2 million dollars, almost half of the paid media budget.

Sales and business impact followed – for premium collections presented in the campaign reached an increase of 303% YoY.