Where has all the great marketing to women creative gone? Is it me or is advertising becoming more male? Now, I am not talking about the people who work in the business (although it is still predominantly male with only 3% of female agency creative directors). I am talking about the creative. The work. Go to any advertising blog or website and just look at the thumbnails of the creative on the page. Where are the women in the ads? As I was doing research for this blog series, I was surprised myself by the lack of sex in advertising (gender, that is…). I remember several years ago feeling similarly disappointed at a Cannes Screening. I felt the winning work was sophomoric, bathroom humor and not as aspirational as some of the beautiful or conceptual work that I admired earlier in my career. I have also noticed this in automotive advertising. Having worked on GM accounts for almost a decade at other agencies, I remember the great work we did for women. Today, you are lucky if you have any human being in the ad.
As a female creative director, I sometimes take for granted what I bring to my work. My understanding of what women want, how they think, what they feel and what drives them to be loyal to a brand. It is second nature to me. It is in my DNA. But for those who need some inspiration (and we all do), I am writing this blog series on 20 companies who I feel get marketing to women. Some of these examples are classics. Some of these are not even written for a female audience but appeal to us. They are not meant to be campaigns. And I am not saying these companies get it right now or all the time. These examples are just moments, where I feel the message connects on a deeper, emotional level with women. Every week I will post one of these examples.
- American Heart Association
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Toyota
- Kotex
- Target
- Allstate
- Cingular
- Evian
- Dove
- Nike
- Proctor & Gamble
- Kindle
- Adidas
- MasterCard
- Booking.com
- Kleenex
- Johnson & Johnson
- Electrolux
- Meijer
- Bissel
Do you know of any other marketing to women creative that truly connects? Let me know and I will check it out. Considering women make over 80% of household purchasing decisions, there really should be more award winning marketing to women creative, don’t you think?
Very nice Laurie. I look
Very nice Laurie. I look forward to reading more in this series and keeping my eye out for other advertising that connects to women.
Thanks Deb-the first example
Thanks Deb-the first example will be published tomorrow morning!
I wonder if they would
I wonder if they would continue to connect if women knew the whole story and how bad many of their products were for the environment and society?