PR > Culture & Context

THE GENDER DISCOUNT

BETC HAVAS, Sao Paulo / SANTANDER / 2024

Awards:

Bronze Cannes Lions
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Case Film

Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for PR?

With the campaign, Santander garnered significant PR coverage, appearing in the country's major media outlets and press. Whether on finance portals or even channels that promote purpose-driven campaigns, the bank received highly positive mentions throughout the campaign and generated residual impact for the rest of the year as a noteworthy practice.

Please provide any cultural context that would help the Jury understand any cultural, national or regional nuances applicable to this work.

Mother's Day is one of the main dates for the national retail industry, where brands take advantage to sell as much as they can to people. Especially in the financial sector, the date is full of advertisements that do not reflect the reality of mothers in Brazil. Women head 50.8% of Brazilian households, undertake 3 times more, yet earn 21% less than men. Santander has a commitment: to strengthen women's participation in the economy, challenging norms and driving discussions. Therefore, on Mother's Day, we create fairer life situations for women. Santander challenged the status quo with media pieces, encouraging employers and sectors to participate in the project. So much to spend, so much to buy, the card is the consumption hero... but have you ever stopped to think that these same mothers earn 21% less? Based on the lessons learned from other campaigns target at women, Santander was subjected to several misogynistic attacks on social media. However, this did not prevent us from giving up or backing down from the action, but rather from continuing to reinforce the message and directing our efforts to impact the lives of women.

Background

Santander needed, once again, to validate its position as a partner bank, supporting women to thrive economically. Our major challenge on the date was not only to speak to mothers. Equity is an essential issue for all women. This means that, in addition to current mothers, our target includes women in general, whether they are customers, non-customers, employees, or future employees of the bank. In practice, we are talking about: Women: economically active, aged 18 or older, residing in any region of the country. Brazil ranks 130th in the world gender pay equity ranking, which demonstrates the importance of the topic in our society. This is compounded by the fact that mothers face even more difficulties, with 1 in 3 women with children in early childhood considering downgrading their careers or resigning and still earning lower salaries than other women.

Describe the creative idea

Mother's Day historically ranks among the dates that most drive the economy in Brazil. So what's the use of driving the economy on Mother's Day if women's earnings lag behind men's by 21%?

Upon seeing that during seasonal dates, brands often employ emotional discourse, largely focused on gifts, Santander saw an opportunity to innovate and do something different by addressing one of the main problems in our country: the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 21%.

How can we encourage a fairer world and better living conditions for women?

Therefore, Mother's Day 2023 served as a platform for an unprecedented discussion about wage inequality in the mainstream media, with Santander offering a 21% discount on various bank services exclusively for women. Going beyond the date, Santander decided it's not enough to just acknowledge a debt, it needs to be paid.

Describe the PR strategy

In such a challenging scenario for the individuals celebrated on this day, it's important to move beyond the realm of advertising and take real actions to continue the fight for gender equality. Recognizing the need to impact the reality of mothers, we knew it was important to uphold a discourse built by Santander in the struggle for gender equality, which originated from within the organization. With a bold proposal, Santander decided to address this debt and offer special conditions for women, doing something financially relevant for them. In these special conditions, the bank eliminated the gap, ensuring that wage disparity was transformed into equity in Santander products.

Overall led to extensive PR coverage for Santander, featuring prominently in major media outlets and press nationwide. Across finance portals and platforms championing purpose-driven initiatives, the bank received overwhelmingly positive mentions, resulting in a lasting impact throughout the year as a commendable achievement.

Describe the PR execution

Through a film broadcasted on both free-to-air and cable television, as well as extensively across the digital sphere including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, we highlighted the issue of wage disparity among women. In the film, we featured real Santander employees from various departments to underscore the authenticity of our commitment to fairer living conditions for women. Throughout the marketing funnel and across all media touchpoints, we tailored the message to fit the formats, placing more emphasis on the objective selling points. In this campaign, Santander utilized all its own communication channels to amplify the impact of the social disparity theme, including bank branches, website, app, OOH strategically distributed across the cities and social media. In social media, we employed a targeted communication strategy focused on the female audience to mitigate negative and destructive comments regarding the urgent need for pay equity between men and women.

List the results

Faced with such a significant challenge, we not only became a disruptive brand but also achieved extraordinary results for the brand, the business, and society. We recognize this debt and are committed to creating fairer conditions for mothers and women by offering a 21% discount on key bank services. Through social media alone, we achieved 608 million positive impacts and an estimated reach of 69 million people. By undertaking a social debt of R$34 million in exemptions and discounts, we surpassed goals with a return of 5.2. We saw a significant increase: 201% more insurance policies contracted by women, 7% more invoices split by women, 125% more capitalization titles sold to women, 157% more cards issued to women, and 91% more loans granted to women. In addition to the results, we are increasingly closer to having the same number of male and female clients, with a gap of approximately 3%.

Please tell us how the brand purpose inspired the work

The bank has been a pioneer in dedicating efforts to service innovations to combat gender inequities through the Santander Delas Platform, activated both continuously and with dedicated flights around International Women's Day. Santander is one of the best companies for women to work for in Brazil, according to GPTW. They already represent 60% of the total 46,000 employees of the bank in the country.

The attractiveness of female professionals to work at the bank is one of the most critical indicators for proving brand and company reputation. The proportion of women who submitted their resumes for open positions increased by 194% compared to the previous month, reaching 73% of all resumes sent. For the bank's commitment to be legitimate, it must demonstrate that it is genuine, from the outside in, having achieved salary equity among its employees, Santander understands the importance of evaluating the growth of its reputation among women.

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