2019 Glass: The Award for Change

THE #EQUALPOCKETS COLLECTION

TitleTHE #EQUALPOCKETS COLLECTION
BrandKINGS OF INDIGO
Product/Service#EQUALPOCKETS COLLECTION
Category A01. Glass
Entrant DDB BERLIN, GERMANY
Idea Creation DDB BERLIN, GERMANY
PR BAM BERLIN, GERMANY
Production JAYJAY Berlin, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Dennis May DDB Group Germany Chief Creative Officer
Jan Harbeck DDB Group Germany Managing Creative Director
David Mously DDB Group Germany Managing Creative Director
Patrik Lenhart DDB Group Germany Creative Director
Marco Lemcke DDB Group Germany Senior Art Director
Alice Rotelli DDB Group Germany Art Director
Sirena Grace Martinelli DDB Group Germany Art Director
Maximilian Müller DDB Group Germany Copywriter
Rowan El-Goweiny DDB Group Germany Junior Copywriter
Hitarthy Shah DDB Group Germany Junior Creative
Rohit Wani DDB Group Germany Junior Creative
Vaishnavi Rai DDB Group Germany Junior Creative
Susanne Plümecke DDB Group Germany Account Director
Kerstin Sönnichsen DDB Group Germany Management Supervisor
Stefan Nick DDB Group Germany Senior Account Manager
Philip G. Lovelace BAM Berlin Managing Director
Peter Dreiss BAM Berlin Art Director
Kim Huhn / Director & DOP
Jonas Reichert / Photographer
Keke Liu / Stylist
Agnes Olszanski / Hair & Make-Up Artist
Thommy Teichmann Pirates 'N Paradise Berlin Head of Postproduction
Felix Christ Pirates 'N Paradise Berlin Editor & Grading
Jared Meier-Klodt JayJay Berlin Executive Producer
Johannes Stegemann JayJay Berlin Executive Producer
Tony Tonnaer Kings of Indigo Founder
Elisabeth Verheijen Kings of Indigo Managing Director
Ana Vujanic Kings of Indigo Communication
Salimah Gablan Kings of Indigo Illustration

Background

Brand Values: The brand mission of Kings of Indigo is to pay equal importance to being environmentally and socially sustainable. Ensuring that every high-quality garment is produced with conscience in fair and safe working conditions. ​ Since 2012, Kings of Indigo is a member of the Fair Wear Foundation. ​ Brief: How can a fashion brand known for being environmentally sustainable claim the territory of being socially sustainable as well? The objective of a new collection was to create social awareness for a topic closely tied to the brand values.​ Objective: By using the topic of the Gender Pay Gap and combining it with a fashion insight, Kings of Indigo wanted to create a light-hearted approach to a serious topic and bring social awareness to the heads of a young target audience.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

In 2019 even in the most liberal countries in Europe, the Gender Pay Gap is still around 21 %. Meaning that women earn less than men for the same work. A serious topic that society needs to be aware of. Especially the younger demographic who doesn't see the relevance and will to act. Although gender equality remains one of the most talked about issues all over Europe and on a global scale, it still lacks collective action. The reason is that the media used by the young target audience is often crowded with light-hearted, fashionable and entertaining content that conceals important discussions like equal pay. This consumer behavior shows that brands must tap into the field of lifestyle content to make people voluntarily pay attention to their message.

Describe the creative idea

The metaphor of deep pockets standing for a lot of money is known by people worldwide.​ Interestingly, women's pockets are significantly smaller than men's. As if they were tailored to match the ever-present Gender Pay Gap.​ #EqualPockets is the first female jeans collection coming with pockets equally as deep as men's to create a political statement for equal pay disguised as an instagrammable fashion item.​ Every pair of jeans comes with the enlarged inlays, which were designed with inspirational and empowering drawings by illustrator Salimah Gablan. In addition, a pocket folder to explain the idea behind the collection, the iconic jeans leather tag with a printed statement for equality and sew-on badges to individualize the jeans, were delivered with every garment.

Describe the strategy

Our target audience of young women mainly uses social media platforms to remain informed, updated and most of them follow fashion and lifestyle-influencers. ​ Therefore, the launch of the equalpockets collection was supported by Influencers like Alexandra Lapp, Madeleine Daria and Nanda Schwarz. With follower counts reaching up to 500k, they spread our message among their huge follower base.​ This way, Kings of Indigo was able to highlight a serious issue in a light-hearted and believable approach to a young audience.

Describe the execution

The #Equalpockets Collection was introduced with a Launch Film and a website, but also with dozens of influencers joining the campaign. The Launch happened online on the 28th of March 2019 over all channels. Besides spreading the message on owned channels, existing content pieces on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook were commented, and Direct Messages were sent to hundreds of influencers all over the world. This way even more people were inspired to talk about our topic and pre-book their jeans in the timeframe of one month between launch and release. ​ Due to the campaign being a fashion collection #EqualPockets is scalable by producing further drops and could even use several Equal Pay Days around the world to promote the subject matter.

Describe the results / impact

With the help of over 20 influencers, the campaign reached roughly 2 million users online, creating a percentage increase of 85 % unique visits on the website and making the Launch post on the Instagram channel of Kings of Indigo; the most successful post in the brand's history.​ While the campaign spread on social media, Kings of Indigo also sparked a fresh conversation on respectable fashion blogs, lifestyle magazines and mainstream media. Bringing #EqualPockets as an exclusive story to more than 50 online magazines and lifestyle blogs, just like Fizzy Mag, thisisjanewayne and interview.de, with more and more joining. ​ Apart from making the gender pay gap an approachable subject for younger people, all of the profits will be used to support equality in payment in collaboration with Fair Wear Foundation.