International Women's Day 2020 happened on March 8th and numerous brands put together special campaigns to celebrate the day devoted to women globally.
What is IWD?
Started in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America, IWD was meant to draw attention to a new cause, women's right. March 8th was selected as the day by a German organisation dedicated to universal suffrage shortly after and IWD was formally recognized by the UN in 1975. IWD has always been global in its outlook and this year was no different.
Brands from around the world, seeking to associate themselves with a worthy cause, produced campaigns which promote this year's theme of #EachforEqual and highlight the struggles women face and the contributions they have made to their company. Below are a few examples of the unique ways the best global brands celebrated the day.
Apple
To show its appreciation for IWD, Apple posted its one and only tweet with a photo montage of famous women, such as Lady Gaga, Marie Kondo and Malala Yousafza, all using Mac laptops.
Set to a backdrop of Beyoncé’s ***Flawless, the video is an extension of its 'Behind the Mac' found footage series and highlights women who are 'making a difference in the world today' - and using a Mac to do so.
Avon
In contrast to Apple's brand-focused IWD campaign, Avon's contribution to IWD is a call for social change.
Noting that women are still underrepresented in many fields such as business, art and medicine, Avon is asking people to 'put an end to pejorative words and phrases used to silence women' and prevent them from reaching their potential.
Avon has asked women to share the words they want to reclaim with the hashtag #SpeakOut and will collate these stories into a gallery of women's stories from around the world on their website and social media feeds.
Amazon
Amazon, one of the world's largest employers (750,000 employees as of 2019), addresses the subject of women in the workplace as part of its IWD campaign.
To attract attention, Amazon produced a flashy 'Women powering Amazon' video which shows the many, exciting ways women contribute to all of Amazon's businesses.
The video links to a company blog post which describes, in detail, what the company is doing to promote women in its workforce.
And to back up these claims, Amazon has also created a special 'Woman at Work' section of their jobs site which provides further details of the various positions Amazon has open - and more details about the women who work there.
Diageo
Diageo, too, decided to focus on the women who support their operations globally by asking each of its 28,000 employees to state how they will help accelerate gender equality in the workplace.
Some of these testimonials were made into short videos for the company's YouTube channel and promoted on Diageo's social media feeds.
Along with this inward-looking campaign, Diageo also committed on the company website to achieve its target of a 40% female global senior leadership team by 2025.
Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi headquartered airline, produced a rather controversial video as its contribution to IWD.
Unbeknown to most non-Arabic speakers, its business class seats have previously been known as 'Business-man' seats in the local language.
For IWD 2020, Etihad has officially changed the Arabic the company uses for its upper-tier class and will, from March 8th forward, designate these seats as 'Business Class'.
'Every step is a step forward,' as they say in the video.
Shell
Finally, one of the most unusual - and perhaps most clever - marketing campaign for IWD comes from the Dutch oil and gas company, Shell. Or rather, it comes from one of its 44,000 global service station.
As reported in industry site Convenience Store Decisions, the San Dimas, California, USA Shell station will change its name to She'll.
This tongue-in-cheek branding exercise aims to draw attention to the company's new initiative, She Will, which seeks to increase female participation in an industry in which women only make up around 15% of the workforce.
In support of this effort, Shell's social media channel featured the changes that Shell is making to help women throughout the company build their networks and close the gender gap - as well as its new IWD-inspired logo.
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