Highlighter pens are used to mark important things; usually words or passages in printed and written texts. Everyone is aware of the benefit of such pens – even if they only remember them from their time as a student.

For our client Stabilo we wanted to turn this rational benefit into an emotional benefit. By making it about more than just a pen, but about an attitude and purpose.

In 2018 the debate on gender equality reached a new global climax. Discrimination is one half of the narrative, disregarded female triumphs are the other. All too often in history women were upstaged, their work and success not mentioned. So, they never appeared in the collective awareness – unlike their male counterparts. That's why we thought about how we could rightfully participate in order to add something meaningful to the gender equality debate.

2018 was the year to rewrite history with Stabilo Boss. We wanted to give women and their success stories the stage they deserve. And this we did by, in the truest sense of the word, highlighting them.

In the campaign the yellow stroke of the Stabilo Boss representatively highlights three women: NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, U.S. First Lady Edith Wilson and Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner. The Stabilo Boss is a tool for highlighting written or printed passages and words. This is the analogue heritage we wanted to stay true to. Therefore, a print execution was key. To emphasize the storytelling, we decided to not just write about the women and then highlighting the crucial copy parts, but to use what already existed: photographs. These show group shots, where men are in forefront or in the centre of the visual. Thanks to the stroke’s bright color the previously unremarkable women now become the focal point in the monochromatic visuals. That creates contrast and ties the design together by effectively drawing the eye to the product, the women and the copy that tells the story of their remarkable accomplishments.

What started as ads in Germany turned into a global conversation. The campaign reinvigorated the equality debate and created a buzz. Not only did the campaign achieve this in the classical media but significantly so amongst millions on social media. People shared and discussed the ads or even suggested and celebrated other remarkable women on their social media accounts. Tweets reached up to 15 million impressions and interaction rates of 27%. In total Stabilo was mentioned 97.4 % more often as compared to before the campaign. What’s even more noteworthy, is the fact that not only did this campaign go viral for a short duration but has stayed extremely relevant on multiple channels across the internet with at least 4.100 mentions every day, to date. So, Stabilo Boss has inspired people to change the narrative of history by doing what it can best – highlighting the remarkable.