As an official sponsor of International Women’s Day 2017, (Wednesday, 8 March) Western Union is launching a powerful campaign, created by mcgarrybowen, that celebrates the role of education in helping girls reach their goals. The campaign will run globally across digital, social media and video on demand platforms. Used as a hook for the campaign is the fact that over the last few years around 25% of all Western Union customers moved money with the brand to support education. Western Union believes that moving money for girls’ education in particular is critical to driving gender equality.
In parallel, through Education for Better, the Western Union Foundation is on track to help train 50,000 women and youth across the Americas, Europe Union, Africa and Asia by 2020 and, this week, will be launching the WU Scholars Program, a global scholarship program focused on supporting students around the world to pursue a post-secondary education in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), business and entrepreneurship. mcgarrybowen’s campaign highlights the power of education as the driving force to achieve gender equality; pointing to the fact that education acts as a starting gun in achieving whatever dream a girl may have: Whether it’s to be the first woman on the moon, the first female President of the USA or the first person on Mars.
Directed by MJ Delaney, the ad that forms the backbone of the campaign (above) features five girls representing different nationalities. We see them running up hills and over rooftops as they race together, with purpose, towards their opportunities. A punchy, specially composed track by Finger Music plays over the action, reflecting the energy on screen, while a young girl announces: “The race is on.” Post production work on the spot was carried out by Jam Post and media planning and buying on the campaign was through Mullenlowe MediaHub. For the second year running, Western Union is also working with TED to promote the cause.
Angus Macadam, ECD at mcgarrybowen, said: “Education is fueling a whole generation of little girls with big dreams. And we better all watch out because they’re in a hurry.” Simonetta Rigo, Senior Vice President for Global Brand, Marketing and Customer Engagement at WU, said: “We feel strongly that money moved for a girl’s education is money making a big difference, particularly in the context of gender equality. We know our customers feel the same and wanted to acknowledge that, while also continuing to support girls’ education above and beyond our core business of money movement.”
