At The FQ, we’re a woman-owned business and a visibility powerhouse, working with conscious leaders in every industry to change the equation and close the global gender gap. At our core, we believe that change happens when we see what’s unseen.
Through our “Trailblazers in History” video campaign, we’re accelerating equality by sharing the stories of “unseen” female change-makers. From historic firsts to pioneering the world’s most innovative concepts, women have made extraordinary contributions to the world as we know it.
Yet, so many of these iconic women’s achievements have gone largely unnoticed because they were never documented in history books. For example, Albet Einstein’s often overlooked first wife, Mileva Marić-Einstein, was a physicist too – and there’s evidence that her work contributed significantly to his groundbreaking science.
The purpose of this campaign is simple, but powerful: Make the invisible visible by highlighting forgotten women in history. Our goal is three-fold:
1) Inspire the next generation of female disruptors to challenge the status quo, dismantle barriers, and create a world where everyone can thrive
2) Educate and inform our global community of two million social followers
3) Promote our own brand experiences, as well as various cultural events throughout the year, in a fun, creative way to engage and grow our community
With a small social team of just a few people and zero budget, we’ve organically grown this series post by post. After we landed on the idea of spotlighting the lives and legacies of female trailblazers in history, we began by experimenting with several different content formats – from single photos to carousels and Q&As.
There was a lot of trial and error before, ultimately, discovering that original docu-style videos resonated best with our audience. Case in point, one of our first videos chronicling advertising legend Mary Wells Lawrence went viral with 4.6 million views and 555,000 engagements across channels (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok).
By embracing the storytelling power of short-form documentary filmmaking, we’ve been able to bring our vision to life in a way that’s deeply authentic and uniquely beautiful. Now, one of our biggest obstacles is condensing these videos – which cover years of history and hours of research – down to just a few minutes. Since we aren’t conducting traditional video shoots, we’ve also been challenged to get creative with sourcing our footage, leveraging a combination of archive videos, photos, text, and animation/graphics. For voice-overs, we’ve recruited volunteers from across the company.
Although each video focuses on a different woman in history, our scripts are all carefully crafted to stay true to our overall mission: connecting and empowering women to dream big and strive for a future where gender equality is the norm.
Since launching earlier this year, The FQ’s “Trailblazers in History” series spans over 40 videos that shine a well-deserved spotlight on the likes of Anna May Wong (the first Chinese American Hollywood star), Anna Bissell (America’s first female CEO), Sally Ride (the first U.S. woman in space), Ruth Handler (the creator of Barbie), and more.
From a performance standpoint, these videos have far exceeded our expectations. Collectively, across The FQ’s accounts – without any paid media boost – they’ve received:
23,389,142 video views
2,816,163 total engagements
26,555,240 total impressions
They’re also been instrumental in helpif The FQ surpass three million organic followers across social channels. That’s a growth of over 125% since 2022 and recently, we've consistently experienced an almost 200% average monthly growth. Most importantly, the feedback that we’ve received on the videos is proof that we’ve accomplished our number one goal of inspiring and uplifting our community. Positive comments include:
“Thank you for the education! Genuinely appreciate learning and sharing this important person and their historic, relevant, and influential work.” ~ @_treble_maker_
“This made me cry from so many emotions… ranging from frustration to joy. Thank you for sharing posts like these.” ~ @iamkelleykali
“Thank you for sharing this information. The more we educate, the better we understand our past. Understanding the past helps to positively change the future.” ~ @sally_walt_3
We call our FQ community “power of the pack,” because a woman alone has power, but together we have impact. Indeed, in order for us all to be trailblazers, we must first see and understand the trailblazers that paved the way.
