Objectives

Enso and the ERA Coalition set a goal to raise awareness that women still are not guaranteed equal rights under the U.S. Constitution.

This is a shock to most; 80 percent of Americans assume equal rights in the U.S. were established long ago. June 30, 2017, also marked the 35th anniversary of the deadline to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which sought to enshrine equality in the Constitution.

First proposed in Congress in 1923, the ERA would provide legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. It remains the only clear-cut way to protect against all legal gender-based discrimination in the US, and is supported by 94 percent of Americans (source).

Campaign goals were to:

• Raise awareness of the ERA and the fact that women are not guaranteed equal rights in the U.S. Constitution.
• Breathe new life into this conversation and reintroduce the issue to the next generation so they can take up the mantle and protect themselves now and in the future. People under 35 years old would not have seen the ERA fail to pass in 1982.

The objectives of the campaign were to:

• Mobilize Americans - particularly Millennials and Gen Z - to take action by publicly showing their support for passing the ERA
• Encourage Americans to take up the issue with their own networks on social media
• Elevate the issue in public discourse through national media outlets

Strategy and Execution

Enso set out to create an open-source, grassroots campaign that let the creators express the issue in their own style--in the tradition of protest signs rather than having a singular branded top down campaign. Part of the approach involved bring together some of the brightest creative thinkers and technologists to give Americans (Millennials and Gen Z in particular) the assets and tools to stoke their own conversations online and offline, and inspire action around the ERA. The agency knew the importance of speaking to its audiences in their language (memes) and on their turf (social media). It also leveraged the third-party legitimacy of the ERA Coalition, and the profile of its heavyweight board members, Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem.

Part of the approach also included capitalizing on national pride around Independence Day, when history, progress and freedom would be top of mind.

Implementation

enso curated a team of 35 creative thinkers and technologists for an 'ERA design hackathon,' to develop shareable visual content designed for a new, younger generation of activists. The agency was able to bring together top talent to collaborate for the #PasstheERA effort because the task at hand is big, it impacts everyone, and it is almost universally agreed on that this legislation needs to be passed. The idea was to breathe new life into a slightly dusty conversation by opening up the creative process to a diverse group of participants from several cultures and industries. The result was passtheera.co, a website with comprehensive resources for ERA advocacy, including:

• a gallery of more than 50 memes
• a toolkit with three downloadable postcards, a phone script for calling state representatives, and 15 sample tweets
• A list of relevant media coverage

As Independence Day approached, enso launched its campaign using media, social media and its partners' channels. This activation included:

• Issuing a news release to U.S. media, and pitching media by phone and email
• Outreach to community ambassadors, influencers and advocates via social media
• Sharing the content on social media, and encouraging partners to spread the message through their own channels
• Tagging relevant influencers and encouraging them to share the assets with their audiences

The resulting #passtheERA campaign gained substantial public awareness and support, and continues to evolve and grow today. The campaign enjoyed a second wave of engagement ahead of Women's Equality Day, when Fast Company ran a second story with a fresh batch of graphic assets.

Results

The #PasstheERA campaign achieved the following results, in line with campaign objectives:

Objective one and two:

• Make Millennials aware that women are not guaranteed equal rights
• Mobilize Americans to take action by sharing the issue on their social networks

Results that met these objectives: Social media reach on Twitter of 19 million. This included 1,200+ social shares and 450+ social interactions (meaning likes/comments/retweets).

• Mashable's article got upwards of 1,100 social shares
• Fast Company's article was retweeted more than 130 times
• One of the hackathon participants, Ali Vingiano of Buzzfeed, was inspired to create a video about the cause. Her video, which featured members of the ERA Coalition and enso representatives from the #PasstheERA campaign, was viewed more than 210,000 times on YouTube
• The campaign was shared by four influencers on Facebook; Social Good, Mashable Trending, The ERA Coalition and Equal Rights Amendment. These four posts were engaged with by 80+ individuals

Objective three: Elevate the issue in public discourse through national media outlets.

Results that met this objective: Media reach of 35 million, including high-profile and far-reaching coverage in Buzzfeed, Mashable, Fast Company and The Drum

Media

Video for #PasstheERA by enso