Objectives

Responding to recent global awareness surrounding the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in the workplace and building off the momentum from a historic public hearing on this issue held in December 2017, the NYC Commission on Human Rights unveiled its latest public information campaign entitled "It's Sexual Harassment. Report it. End it".

The Commission enforces one the strongest and most extensive civil rights law in the nation, the NYC Human Rights Law, which protects New Yorkers against discrimination and harassment in employment, housing, and public accommodations, among other areas.

Since reports of sexual harassment are often dismissed or minimized in the workplace, the ads remind New Yorkers that the Commission recognizes these actions as sexual harassment and encourages them to report it by calling our Infoline at 718-722-3131.

The overall goal of the campaign is to establish the NYC Commission on Human Rights as a viable venue of justice for victims of sexual harassment – and to influence a greater number of victims to report their experiences with sexual harassment to the Commission.

Read the press release to announce the launch of the campaign

Strategy and Execution

What is the campaign?

A 4-to-6 week media outreach campaign to educate New Yorkers on their rights and protections under the NYC Human Rights Law with regards to sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment is protected under the NYC Human Rights Law as gender-based harassment.

The campaign, launched across social media at the start, features graphic representations of some common excuses made by harassers to dismiss allegations of sexual harassment – "it's just a joke", "It's just a hug", "It's just flirting", but crossed out to clarify that these behaviors in the workplace can point to sexual harassment under the NYC Human Rights Law.

As part of the second phase of its workplace sexual harassment protection campaign, the Commission unveiled a series of videos in order to continue to draw attention to protections under the Law and encourage reporting of sexual harassment. The four short videos and compilation video, provided testimonial-style in acknowledgement of the severity of the issue, are inspired by a letter received by the Commission from a victim's daughter describing the toll of sexual harassment on her mother and her entire family. Watch the full compilation video online on YouTube.com.

Who is the target audience?

Target audiences includes

• Primary audience ½: Female employees in non-office/field oriented professions (domestic workers, cleaners, constructions worker, home care workers, child care workers, etc, models, actors/actresses in the field, etc).
• Primary audience ½: Female employees in office/professional settings (lawyers, media Professionals, , medical workers, government workers, etc.)
• Secondary audience: non-female employees in both work settings described above.
  

Strategies and Tactics:

• 4-6 week Digital, News Media and Outdoor Marketing Campaign
  • Social media advertising focus (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for four weeks, both video and images.
  • Outdoor will include subway advertisements, bus shelters, LINK NYC and ethnic/community newspapers
  • Will be announced in the media in accordance with a report of findings announcement of the Commission's hearing on sexual harassment in the workplace.
• Phase Two
  • As part of the second phase of its workplace sexual harassment protection campaign, the Commission unveiled a series of videos in order to continue to draw attention to protections under the Law and encourage reporting of sexual harassment. The four short videos and compilation video, provided testimonial-style in acknowledgement of the severity of the issue, are inspired by a letter received by the Commission from a victim's daughter describing the toll of sexual harassment on her mother and her entire family.

Results

NEW LEGISLATION: The most important metric we can account for is CHANGE! The momentum from this campaign and the historic public hearing on Sexual Harassment influenced newly-passed legislation to combat sexual harassment in NYC. See details of the new legal requirements passed by the NYC Council here.

Video: Overall, the campaign netted more than 2.6 Million impressions across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Hulu, resulting in more than 963,553 total video views (These are 100% views of Commission content) for the approximate cost of .06 per 100% video view.

Banners: 1.3 million impressions on The Cut (NYMag), Jezebel, and Bklyner

Social Media: 14,000 clicks to the Commission's website via Facebook, Twitter, and other SM.

Outbrain: Using the Outbrain network, the Commission was able to push traffic and nearly 5,000 visits to its online blog post on reporting sexual harassment and the filing of a complaint process.

Bus shelters: 50 locations throughout the five boroughs netted 12,690,000. Given that this placement was complimentary and provided by NYCGO, this was a fantastic means of getting eyeballs on Commission work with little to no cost.

Subway Squares and Overheads: The main driver of awareness in New York City, subway advertising for the Commission's sexual harassment campaign resulted in more than 27 million impressions generated, by far the greatest awareness influencer.

Poster Campaign: By working with Encompass media, the Commission was able to generate 944,000 impressions by placing posters in barber shops, nail salons, hair salons, and in bar restrooms across New York City.

Media