Somewhere between Lady Gaga and the London Stock Exchange, women across the world use appearance to make an outward statement about who they are on the inside. For women in tradition-bound Thailand, things are agonizingly different. Three in four are afraid of trying to make themselves more beautiful, expecting ridicule.

Beauty brand Olay wanted to inspire Thai women to break free from fear and live their own best beauty. Through a PR-driven campaign, Olay became chief encourager in helping women take the first steps in adjusting views of beauty for a modern world – defined by looking your best through your own eyes.

We did a study of views about beauty, and held a beauty-judging session that became a stage for a press conference to announce results. We invited journalists and bloggers to be judges to show how easy it is to submit to conventional views of how Thai women should appear, underscoring the built-in prejudices women face in trying to express themselves through appearance. Study results reinforced this prejudicial experience.

Study infographics posted on Facebook ignited passionate dialogue. Women posted their own videos and photos and encouraged one another through #BestBeautiful. Celebrities weighed in with support and inspiration. Olay video posted on YouTube dramatized the issue.

The campaign hit a nerve, generating 2 million video views; 500,000+ likes, shares and comments on Facebook; reaching nearly 250,000 Instagrammers. Olay Thailand’s Facebook page reached #1 in engagement globally.

Olay redefined the conversation around modern-day beauty to one determined by women themselves.

With research citing 3 in 4 women feel judged for expressing their own sense of beauty, Olay held a beauty-judging session as a stage for announcing research results. Eighty+ journalists and bloggers became a beauty-judging panel, electronically assigning scores to women. This revealed deep-seated preconceptions around what Thai women should look like, and let writers and producers see first-hand how deeply engrained society’s prejudices are, which informed stories.

Research infographics showing Thai women’s deep fears of expressing non-traditional forms of beauty further fueled broad media interest and drove engagement on Olay social channels. With #BestBeautiful, women posted their own videos and photos, encouraged one another, and spoke out against beauty prejudices. Olay video posted on YouTube featured the conflict women feel. Celebrities who’ve broken the mold weighed in with support and inspiration, reinforcing the notion that looking your best through your own eyes is what really matters.

Olay redefined the conversation around modern-day beauty to one determined by women themselves, not the society in which they live.

Nearly 100 stories appeared in leading Thai media such as Bangkok Post, The Nation, Thai Rath and Daily News, reaching 40 million consumers.

Media helped drive 2 million video views, 500,000+ likes, shares and comments on Facebook, and nearly 250,000 Instagram messages. Olay Thailand’s Facebook page reached #1 in engagement globally.

Discussion on 15 online forums drove more engagement, achieving 45,000+ views.

The conversation was rich: “When I put red lips on, others think I’m aggressive, and I lose confidence. But now I will stick to what I want,” read one post. Another expressed, “I can see people gossip about me, but I don’t care…I want to keep my beauty as long as I can…” And, “All compliments are meaningless when you can’t even tell yourself you’re beautiful.”