Description

BACKGROUND

Kazakhstan is a region where women are traditionally expected to play the archetypal role of stay-at-home mothers. Discussing women’s rights is deemed inappropriate in Kazakhstani society, as is a woman’s desire to study or work. It is considered unacceptable to invite a woman to a business negotiation or shake a woman’s hand at the end of it. Yet, according to the statistics, women account for 39% of Kazakhstan’s GDP, they operate 41% of small and medium-sized businesses and 50% of the country’s sole proprietors are female. At the same time, women endeavor to start their own businesses but are afraid to develop them. They are also generally reluctant to take loans from banks, even though they are the most responsible credit users. The campaign’s objective is to change the society’s opinion about female entrepreneurship and to inspire businesswomen to develop their businesses and use the bank’s services.

IDEA AND STRATEGY

Idea is to make the huge female businesses’ contribution to the country’s development visible. To support female entrepreneurs and promote credit provisioning services among businesswomen. Business is money. We decided to add the “female” side to all the money circulating in female business to prove that there are many businesswomen in Kazakhstan and that their contribution to the economy is immense.
The campaign is focused on female entrepreneurs who are starting their business or planning to develop it. Women with proactive attitude to life 18 y.o and older.

EXECUTION

A week before International Women’s Day, a huge number of bloggers, journalists and ordinary people noticed that money started to have a nice smell. And then the bank revealed Forte Femme perfume and, together with thousands of businesswomen, daubed all money circulating in their businesses with it. Female entrepreneurs received a gift from the bank – perfume sets with the essence, scented cash register tape and “Woman entrepreneur” stickers. On TV and Radio, famous female entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan unveiled what the scent stands for: respect, overcoming, success, confidence, achievements and victories of businesswomen. One could deposit the scented banknotes at a profitable rate. The last 5 bottles of the perfume were sold at the auction. The money was channeled to female entrepreneurship support funds.

RESULTS

Forte Femme has become social media phenomenon in Kazakhstan. The whole country has started to literally feel the women’s contribution to its’ future and development.
Many businesspersons have spontaneously joined the promotion thus raising the topic of women’s role in Kazakhstan for public discussion. The last 5 bottles of the perfume were sold at the auction. The money was channeled to female entrepreneurship support funds. There were hundreds of new users on the Bank’s website launched for female entrepreneurs. Lots of women were interested in the bank’s services. 19 000 000 organic impressions (in a country with a population of 18M) 134 Media publications ($790 000 earned media) 4 000 000 views on Youtube and social networks (facebook, vkontakte)

Boost in the bank’s B2B department:
- 194% lift in monthly financial turnover,
- 172% lift in the number of new clients,
- 2/3 of the new businesses are owned/operated by women.

Thousands of business people got involved and took a stand for gender equality.

DATE: 27/02/2019 - 31/03/2019

Credits

Georgy Kornilov - Voskhod, Copywriter
Anton Rozhin - Voskhod, Copywriter
Artem Epanchinctev - Voskhod, Copywriter
Alfia Khafizova - Voskhod, Copywriter
Vladislav Derevyannykh - Voskhod, Art Director
Kirill Ratman - Voskhod, Art Director
Elizaveta Larionova - Voskhod, Producer
Andrey Gubaydullin - Voskhod, Creative Director
Veronika Malikova - Voskhod, Strategist
Yelena Dmitriyeva - RA Kombinat, Producer
Taissiya Samoilova - RA Kombinat, Producer Assistant
Tomiris Kassenova - RA Kombinat, Producer Assistant
Nikita Yermolayev - RA Kombinat, Creative Director
Rassul Abidov - RA Kombinat, Copywriter
Diana Korchevskaya - RA Kombinat, Art Director
Egor Solomatin - Daddy's Production, Producer
Darya Yastrebova - Daddy's Production, Director
Tim Lobov - Daddy's Production, Director Of Photography