Maybelline New York believes that everyone should feel free to express themselves, to play and to create. A brand purpose reinforced by their long-running Brave Together platform that aims to destigmatise anxiety and depression and make support for mental health accessible for all. However, the online gaming world is one place where many don’t feel safe to express themselves due to constant targeted abuse. Research has revealed five key facts:

1 in 2 female gamers have experienced abuse online.

59% of female gamers stop to get away from offensive and discriminatory behaviour.

More and more players are forgetting there’s a real person under the gaming character.

71% of male gamers who witness abuse ignore it.

Most gamers are unsure or ill-equipped to combat in-game harassment.

Our objective was to educate and motivate male gamers to help create a safer, more respectful and inclusive gaming community.

We wanted to remind all gamers that behind every digital character is a real human being, so we created Under The Avatar, an emotion-provoking social campaign where male gamers were invited to test a new multiplayer game. What they didn’t know was that we were actually testing them.

Unbeknownst to them we inserted their close female friends into the same game. With the female player's permission and acknowledgement, we captured abuse and harassment hurled in their direction during gameplay. As predicted the male players stayed silent and failed to stand up to the abused gamers. The females were then revealed to the male gamers after play.

The 3-minute social experiment film, acted as a reminder that there is a real person on the other side of the game, and abuse can target a friend, partner, sister or daughter. Encouraging all male gamers to speak up instead of remaining silent.

We commissioned an Australian research survey with 600 garners to gain insights into the problem and the results were confronting. It was clear that action needed to be taken to protect female gamers against online abuse. The main outtake being that 71% of male gamers who witness abuse will ignore it*.

Our strategy was then not just to simply shine a light on an existing problem, but to amplify the silent voices on the subject matter and create allies both male and female in the online gaming world. Further to this, we wanted to shift the conversation from being between female gamers, and place the onus on males, because if the game is truly going to change, it starts with changing their current behaviour.

We partnered with streamers and publications with large male audiences to target male readers, viewers and players to ensure maximum engagement.

On March 14, 2024, we broadcast the social film at a national Fortnite gaming tournament with 30 influential streamers then live-streaming it to their combined audience of over 9.5M followers. It was also shared by the experiment’s participants to their Twitch and TikTok followers creating a further organic reach of 20M+ gamers.

As well as featuring on Maybelline New York and charity organisation ReachOut’s channels, we partnered with NZ charity Youthline to integrate and implement counselling under the avatar with psychologists playing within online games renowned for high levels of toxic abuse. The service was promoted through TiKTok and Twitch, letting female players know that there was professional support available.

Lastly, through Maybelline NY’s charity partnerships ReachOut (AU) and Youthline (NZ) advice, tips and tools were provided to help young players stand up for people experiencing toxic voice chat while offering support to those who have experienced abuse.

The UNDER THE AVATAR film was shared by over 30 influential Twitch streamers reaching 9.5M+ gamers with the film amassing over 3.5M hrs viewed hours.

Shared by National and international media outlets including the GameHers, Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 7, national syndicated radio SYN, NZ Herald, Pop Sugar and Fashion Journal. Amassing 70M+ global impressions and an earned media reach of 25M+.

The most important outcome was connecting with male gamers. Social listening revealed a dramatic gender shift in campaign engagement in just 4 weeks:

Before: Female 72%, Male 28%

Weeks 1 - 2: Female 61%, Male 39%

Weeks 3 - 4: Female 47%, Male 53%

A common catchcry among male gamers was emerging, ‘If you see this behaviour, stand up to it’.

Maybelline Australia reached their highest sales ever for mascaras with Sky High growing +104% and breaking $1.2M, the first mascara ever to do so in Australia.