How L’Oréal stood up for Indonesians against street harassment

When we watch harassment happen without intervening, it deepens the trauma for the person being harassed and shows the harasser that their behaviour is permissible. L’Oréal Paris believes that because ‘we are worth it’, all Indonesians have to stand up against sexual harassment. That’s why it created the ‘STAND-UP’ movement in collaboration with Hollaback!, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating street harassment.

82% of Indonesian women have experienced sexual harassment in a public place. With Indonesia being the fourth biggest market in the world for smartphones, L’Oréal used a first-class mobile method to reach Indonesians and encourage bystanders to take responsibility. The campaign’s goal was to increase awareness about street harassment, with a target of reaching 20 million people, and to train 100,000 people about the 5D technique by 2021.

The 5D Methodology educates the public on what to do if they see or are a victim of a crime or harassment

1. Distract the perpetrator;
2. Delegate by asking for some help;
3. Document the harassment;
4. Direct by speaking up;
5. Delay by comforting.

According to study, 50% of women under the age of 35 had experienced sexual harassment. As a result, early education on how to fight or prevent in a timely and safe manner was our top goal.

The campaign was aimed at females aged 18-44 and males aged 25-44 who are engaged on digital platforms and use interactive content to replicate incidents of street harassment and educate on 5D training. We also include topics of interest about street harassment, such as commuters, frequent travelers, fitness and sports, empowerment, public transportation, and so on.

With the campaign #WeStandUp, L’Oreal Paris provides a clear call to action, because ‘silence is not an option’. An interactive Rich Media Banner invited the user to choose the point of view of the ‘Victim’ or the ‘Bystander’ in an engaging video campaign. This was combined with a massive advocacy campaign, in partnership with celebrities and influencers to inspire and raise awareness about the cause. It incorporated influential and aspirational individuals, advocates for women’s empowerment.

We increased its reach using TikTok Content Co-Creations (5D dance), developing digital bite-sized content to educate younger viewers about this safe solution to combat street harassment. TV News Appearances featuring Cinta Laura, L’Oreal Paris Indonesia’s brand ambassador.

The campaign is in its debut year in Indonesia, launching on International Women’s Day in 2021, as part of L’Oreal Indonesia’s commitment to defend and promote women’s value by empowering themselves and achieving their ambitions.

Execution

To reach and influence the target audience, L’Oreal Paris used a cross channel integration strategy of Digital: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, TV, influencer and community, with Mobile as the core (90% budget). Through the #WeAreWorthIt video, featuring popular celebrity, Cinta Laura, we inspired women around the country to value their self-worth. Cinta discussed her personal struggles with her public image, as well as how people may still intrude on her privacy and self-worth. She spoke with genuine emotion about how women should not feel helpless in the face of public harassment and how, as a group, women can #StandUp to sexual harassment.

Victims and onlookers may now face up to these events safely. To widen our campaign, we went to mass media supported by numerous social channels and communities that can make a big impact. People echoed our declaration and indicated that they too belonged to the Stand Up Movement, by demonstrating how they practiced 5Ds, making this campaign one of the campaigns that was able to move women and men through supportive user generated content.

With the target audience of Indonesians aged 25 to 40 in mind, the brand implemented a comprehensive mobile strategy that efficiently addresses this group. L’Oréal Paris used disruptive audio commercials on Spotify, a major music streaming service, beginning with an immersive situational recording of catcalling and finishing with a call-to-action to the campaign's website. It also used an organic hashtag challenge on TikTok, the popular short-form video app, to create awareness and promote the 5D methodology.

Finally, the brand used an interactive ad unit with a combination of rich media and video advertisements to convey personalized messaging to each audience group - victims and witnesses. 
When a user clicks on the CTA ‘Join Training’, they are brought to the website where they can receive necessary training sessions, meant to help reduce street harassment and establish safe, inclusive environments for all, facilitated by Stand Up International.

Business Impact

L’Oreal Paris has numerous brand activities to break down the obstacles that impede women from completely believing in and realizing their self-worth, based on its longstanding “because I’m worth it” tagline. Taking advantage of the brand’s global presence, the Stand Up initiative today brings the brand’s support for women into the public eye by addressing the intimidating behaviors that undermine girls' and women's very feeling of freedom to move around the world.

The Stand Up Movement campaign inspired both men and women as our target audience, with video display 360 reaching 17 million women and 7 million men for a total impression of 67 million and 13 million, respectively with VTR of 39%. This campaign has also been shown to lead many readers and supporters through 84 coverage articles that reach over 58 million readers, resulting in a 10x ROI from the specified media value. The results on Instagram and Facebook showed a total reach of 19m and 60m impressions respectively, and a click through rate) of 2.53 percent, which outperformed the benchmark of 0.5 percent. With the 5D act performed by communities, it has also fueled over 2000 user generated content and conversation that flows across social media with campaign awareness has reached around 45% since March 2021. According to the campaign’s website, there are more than a million users, and more than 15,000 people have been trained both online and offline. These findings demonstrated that the goals of raising awareness and training people on the 5D methodology (via a digital training program) were met.

A sentiment analysis revealed overwhelmingly positive responses to the campaign. Pre- and post-campaign polls also revealed that as a result of the campaign, L’Oreal Paris is perceived to be more trustworthy, suitable, and powerful for women by +5, +4, and +8 measurement points, respectively. This demonstrates that the campaign not only met the goal set but also had a favorable impact on the brand's image in the minds of the consumers.

This entry was a winner at The Drum Awards for Digital Advertising Asia Pacific in 2021. Find out which competitions in The Drum Awards are currently open for entry.