Branded entertainment, if executed correctly, is the new holy grail of the industry; replacing waning formats consumers have tired of. However the knowledge of its power has spread, and has opened the floodgates to all and sundry - the good, the bad and the ugly, leaving consumers as cynical as ever.

We didn't want to add to the ongoing noise, nor be a flash in the pan - we wanted to uncover a global cultural insight and use it to drive brand equity and engage consumers for years to come. We wanted to create something that adds to and shapes the culture of the world, not just another piece of advertising in a cluttered market place.

Always, a leader in feminine hygiene products and puberty education worldwide, wanted to raise brand awareness, but most of all needed an emotive reason for women to engage with the brand. Feminine care is a low interest category filled with stereotypes and outdated, patronising communications. The brand is wallpaper to our audience, leaving them to reach for the latest promotional offer.

Always is positioned around 'confidence' based on the superior performance of their products, but we wanted to understand confidence in a more meaningful way. At puberty, a girl’s confidence drops significantly, with the lowest point occurring during their first period. Empowering girls during this critical life stage, when their confidence is lowest, gave the brand a potentially powerful and important role.

We took on a big female confidence killer; the common playground insult, 'Like A Girl' and we looked to challenge its use and redefine it with a new inspiring and positive meaning.

We created and filmed a social experiment asking adults and young girls what it means to do things ‘Like A Girl’, in order to spotlight the cultural issue. The film challenged consumers prejudices and for the first time brought the attention of the world to the unconscious gender bias exhibited in the idea of doing things #LikeAGirl.

We created a social movement (on and offline), asking girls to share all the amazing things they do #LikeAGirl, reclaiming a phrase that's generally used as an insult and turning it into a positive, inspiring affirmation of female achievement.

This not only empowered our current audience (18-24 women) but also mobilised them to inspire and support our future target audience (10-12 girls) who could be experiencing the drop in confidence right now. The result? A positive change in societal culture based on the redefinition of one simple phrase.

To generate maximum reach and sharing with a limited media budget, we needed long-form storytelling outside of TV media and opted for YouTube pre-rolls. We sparked organic reach through a strong influencer strategy securing early YouTube views and shares.

The video went viral due to the strong insight and emotive nature of the content, and in the first week, 65% of the views were from social sharing online, PR and news coverage. As the campaign gained traction globally, we centralised the media buy for the whole world, giving us maximum leverage, driving up views and inspiring a global news story.

The results were unprecedented. The video went viral with 4 million views in the first 24 hours. It was the #1 viral video in the world in the second week of launch, reaching 25million views in over 30 countries organically. It achieved worldwide coverage in top-tier media (311 stories) as well as news coverage on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, The One Show, Good Morning America and others. Celebrities also began tweeting the video with Chelsea Clinton, Melinda Gates and Leona Lewis joining the movement.

In addition to the video’s 85 million global views (36% earned), in 150 countries, it received 4.58 billion earned impressions, been shared more than 1.5 million times and inspired 758.9 MM social mentions of #LikeAGirl and 195,000 pieces of user generated content. Purchase intent increased 92% in the UK.

The #LikeAGirl hashtag was mentioned on Twitter at a rate of 1 tweet every 90 seconds during the peak campaign period. The hashtag has lived on to become a symbol of female empowerment worldwide and continues to be used on social media and offline communications to celebrate female achievement.

Always was a leadership brand looking for a way to create a deeper emotional connection with women. Always is positioned around 'confidence' based on superior performance, but wanted to champion girls’ confidence more overtly. Our research uncovered that girls’ confidence plummets during puberty, significantly more than boys.

Empowering girls during this critical life stage, especially with confidence being lowest around her first period, gave Always a powerful role. We took on a big confidence killer, the common playground insult, 'Like A Girl'. We created branded content, a social experiment film, asking adults and young girls share things they do ‘Like A Girl’, to spotlight the cultural issue and inspire girls everywhere to give it a new inspiring, positive meaning.

It lived on YouTube and was seeded with influencers to ensure early views/shares. The film asked girls to share the amazing things they do #LikeAGirl on social platforms. PR drove wider discussion as the conversation ignited, and girls turned it in to a social movement.