Stella is a female-focused insurance company that exists to level the playing field in insurance, and broader society. The Stella brand was created because many insurance products have been designed without taking women’s needs or circumstances into account. As founder Sam White says: “At Stella, we’re proud to stand for more than just cars and profit. Our purpose is to ‘change the game for women’ in male dominated industries and life at large. This new campaign is a bold expression of that perspective.”

The campaign is based on the premise that the language we use shapes the way we see the world. It celebrates a broader view of courage, integrity and audacity by expanding the vernacular beyond the idea that it takes “balls” to be brave. At the heart of the campaign are a collection of awesome, inspiring women and a provocative, empowering and catchy new phrase: ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’.

In predominantly English-speaking societies, the concept of courage and bravery is commonly described as someone having “balls”. Even females who demonstrate bravery are said to have “balls”.

Western culture is over-run with examples of journalists, presenters, commentators, sportsmen - and women - using terms like “that took balls!”, “ballsy move” and “wow, he’s got some serious balls” and so on.

Knowing that language shapes the way we see the world, and that half of the humans on the planet don’t actually have testicles, to even things out we coined a new way to talk about bravery - ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’.

It’s important to point out that the phrase ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’ was positioned as being about a mindset, not just a physical attribute - hence the campaign prominently featured a woman who’s had a double mastectomy. She doesn’t have physical breasts, but she definitely has “boobs”.

For further context, prior to founding Stella Sam White looked at the small print on insurance contracts and found that most insurers will not pay out a claim if the car’s been damaged by someone known to the claimant. A large percentage of this cohort are victims of domestic abuse. It was just one of a vast array of insurance product points that didn’t add up for female drivers, who make up over half of road users.

Stella Insurance was founded to change the game for women - in the insurance sector, in other male-dominated industries and in broader society. The company is female-founded and run by a female leadership team. Stella’s products and customer experiences are designed to prioritise the needs of women (i.e. they offer domestic violence cover where many insurers don’t).

As a brand, Stella gets that challenging, thought-provoking comms are a powerful way to spread their message. The core of the brief was to celebrate Stella’s values, to get people talking about the brand and considering switching their policies to Stella, while using their platform to help balance society’s gender biases. The objectives were to get more traffic to the Stella site and sell more policies, while giving a platform to inspiring women, sparking debate, becoming known for their passionate stance on gender equality and making a dent on culture.

The words we use shape the way we see the world. For example, phrases like “man up”, “don’t be a sissy” and “that’s so gay” were, at one point, acceptable and commonly used. But as society has progressed, as we’ve collectively thought about what they represent, they’ve become less/unacceptable. And think about how gendered language - eg “chairman”, “fireman”, “man-made” - steers us to see the world in a certain way.

The idea of something bold, brave and audacious taking “balls” reinforces a narrow way of thinking. We saw the opportunity to change the way people think about bravery, by changing the way we talk about it.

We celebrated female courage, smarts and audacity by showing a diverse range of awesome women across a range of professional and societal contexts. Including a woman fleeing domestic abuse, a working mum, a motocross champion, a woman going through IVF, an amputee and a woman who’s had a double mastectomy. The idea was to highlight feats of everyday boldness and bravery and tie them to the catchy, provocative phrase ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’.

Our approach was to highlight Stella’s stance on gender equality, and demonstrate our credentials beyond price. To create a passionate, loyal customer base who not only buy Stella products, but also feel even more empowered to call for equality in society.

We targeted all women of driving age. Specifically:

• Young single females: 25-35, single, working.

• ‘Establishing a family’ females: 30-45, generally in a relationship, young family.

• ‘Mature family’ female: 40-60, generally in a relationship, mature family, generally higher income bracket, working part-time.

Research showed that modern Australian women are hardworking, well-educated (40% have a Bachelor Degree or Higher Degree) and passionate about social causes. They are 12% more likely to be loyal to brands that support worthy causes – and 66% would switch from a product they typically buy, to a product from a purpose-driven company. This goes up to 91% when Millennials were asked.

The campaign ran in Australia in 2023 and will run in the UK in 2024. It runs across a full range of media, from 60- and 30-second films for TV and BVOD, 15-second cutdowns and an individual 6-second cutdown for each featured woman. The campaign also included full-page press ads which ran in Marie Claire magazine, radio, and a wide range of OOH executions including full bus-sides and huge digital superscreens at Westfield shopping centres. It extended to a popular podcast, presented by Tarla Lambert, which shines a light on stories of female trailblazers who embody courage, grit and resilience from all walks of life.

239% increase in website traffic year-on-year.

43% increase in policies sold year-on-year.

89.5% increased in quotes requested year-on-year.

Anecdotally, ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’ often mentioned in quote requests/interactions online.

Overwhelming response online/in social media with countless notes/comments from women who feel seen/empowered by the campaign.

The campaign is polarising: high volume of comments online - mostly from men - complaining about the campaign. Many of these are abusive but the Stella team have been trained in how to de-escalate diplomatically.

Anecdotally, massive energy and positivity around ‘IT TAKES BOOBS’ when the Stella founder and leadership team attend meetings, conferences, pitches, etc.

Individuals who buy Stella products have not only become more loyal to the brand, but feel empowered and equipped to call for equality in society.

The campaign case study has been presented to business forums and become an inspiring benchmark demonstration of how marketing can drive change and ROI.

With an increase in customers, Stella can donate more to their long-term partner Women and Girls’ Emergency Centre (WAGEC). $5 is donated to WAGEC for every new policy sold.

The campaign has sparked a broader movement for positive change. Some of Stella’s partners on this journey so far include Are Media, Her Heart, One Roof, Women’s Agenda and TheParentHood.

The idea is scaling overseas. Stella Insurance in the UK will be running the campaign this year.

‘IT TAKES BOOBS’ was a campaign based off Stella’s ‘Unapologetically for Women’ platform. This platform will continue to give rise to challenging, world-shaping work.