In 2019 Citi was one of the first companies to disclose their unadjusted or “raw” pay gaps for both women and U.S. minorities. Analysis revealed that the median pay for women globally was 71% of the median for men, and the median pay for U.S. minorities was 93% of the median for non-minorities.

The existence of a raw pay gap at Citi reflected a need to increase representation of women and U.S. minorities in senior and higher-paying roles. As a result, Citi publicly committed to increase representation at the Assistant Vice President through Managing Director levels to at least 40% for women globally and 8% for Black employees in the U.S. by the end of 2021.

Citi wanted to shine a light on this persistent issue and inspire a broader conversation around pay equity and the representation gaps that exist.

Learning that women are paid less than men should shock people, but we've heard about the Gender Pay Gap for years. As a result, it's not really surprising anymore. Kids, however, see the world more purely, with a clear understanding of right and wrong.

With the help of celebrated female photographer Kelia Anne MacCluskey, Citi created The Moment – a social experiment featuring Citi employees’ children that captured the moment they learned about the pay gap. Their reactions ranged from confusion to frustration. The purity of their perspective reminds us we should never be complacent in the face of inequality and catalyzes a sense of responsibility to create a more inclusive future for the next generation. The Moment wasn’t just an ad campaign, it was a public commitment by Citi to fix their gender pay gap and encourage others to do the same.

Gender equality continues to be a leading concern for consumers, particularly Gen Z, who rank it in the top of pressing issues (alongside gun violence and climate change). Citi wanted to tackle this head on and decided to release their raw pay gap numbers and set public goals to increase representation of women and U.S. minorities in senior and higher-paying roles.

To communicate Citi’s brand purpose as an enabler of economic progress and to drive awareness of The Moment, Citi strategically launched this initiative around International Day of the Girl through traditional and social media outlets targeting diverse audiences inclusive of business change makers, parents and individuals who express interest in current events. In addition, Citi partnered with social influencers, providing a unique opportunity to further the pay equity conversation on a broader scale.

The Moment was a multimedia advertising campaign that first launched on International Day of the Girl on October 10, 2019. Large-scale, impactful placements were used to bring the children’s powerful portraits to life in Times Square, on the LA Times digital homepage and across noteworthy print publications such as the LA Times, New York Times and Washington Post. The campaign video continued to run through November across YouTube, LinkedIn, TIME digital and social, and print insertions ran in The Atlantic and TIME Magazine. The film was also featured at the 2019 TIME100 Next event, where the children featured in the piece were invited to speak about the gender pay gap and debut the video before some of the most influential people in the world. Lastly, the portraits were on display at Citi’s headquarters in New York City, demonstrating to employees Citi’s commitment to pay equity.

Citi set out to shine a spotlight on gender pay equity and saw phenomenal colleague pride, press pick-up and digital engagement with The Moment.

The Moment generated 169M impressions across print, online, out-of-home and event media, and hundreds of broadcast stories, web mentions and print articles ranging from Forbes and American Banker to Adweek and The Drum. 25M people viewed the video, which generated 5M engagements, and 47,000 people visited the campaign landing page to learn about Citi’s commitment to pay equity. Among those exposed to the campaign, it drove brand favorability (+17%pts) as well as improved perceptions of the brand: Reputation (+10%pts), Improving lives in communities (+16%pts) and Enables social progress (+21%pts).

The children’s honest reactions remind us that our work isn’t done. The Moment served as a spark to ignite a broader, honest conversation about pay equity among adults and the next generation.