2021 Social & Influencer

CAN I HELP?

Short List
TitleCAN I HELP?
BrandIKEA
Product/ServiceIKEA
Category D04. Social Behaviour
Entrant WE ARE SOCIAL Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation WE ARE SOCIAL Milan, ITALY
Production WE ARE SOCIAL Milan, ITALY
Credits
Name Company Position
Alessandro Sciarpelletti We Are Social Executive Creative Director
Daniele Piazza We Are Social Executive Creative Production Director
Paulo Gonzalez We Are Social Creative Director:
Mattia Lacchini We Are Social Creative Director
Lorenzo Canazza We Are Social Creative
Giulia De Chirico We Are Social Art Director
Sergio Giussani We Are Social Editor
Francesca Feller We Are Social Head of Client Services
Mirco Bertola We Are Social Senior Account Director
Diego Vallieri We Are Social Senior Account Manager
Alessia Bloise We Are Social Senior Account Executive
Giuliano Franco We Are Social Account Executive
Francesco Pierucci We Are Social Writer
Bruno Tecci We Are Social Head of Strategy
Marta Prosperi We Are Social Strategy Supervisor

Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

IKEA, which has always fought gender inequality starting from home, identified a phrase at the base of disparity: "Can I help?". A phrase that takes for granted that household chores are the responsibility of women. To bring community&media attention to the problem, IKEA wrote a social open letter to Treccani, Italy's most important dictionary, to change the meaning of this expression within home. The open letter was posted on social media in order to make sure our message was read by medium, the entire community and influencers. Through this approach we obtained a real national debate on social media.

Background

IKEA's goal has always been to create the best possible home lifestyle for everyone. For this reason it has always been committed to the defense of human rights including gender inequality. This is because IKEA believes that home is the first society we interface with, and behaviors and situations we are exposed to since childhood can contribute in perpetuating gender inequality phenomenon even outside home. In fact, every year, IKEA launches a communication campaign on International Women's Day to talk about topics such as gender inequality at home. What has been identified this year is that 74% of household chores, even today, in Italy, are the responsibility of women. An alarming fact that unfortunately few people know. The campaign, in fact, had the goal of raising awareness on the issue.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

In order to show IKEA's commitment and to raise awareness about gender inequality at home, we analyzed people's behaviors within the home. In fact, when it comes to cleaning and taking care of the home, men often say the phrase, "Can I help?". A phrase that seems harmless and polite but that implicitly takes for granted that household chores are someone else's responsibility. A responsibility that, still, is attributed to women in 74% of households. For this reason, on International Women's Day, IKEA wrote an open letter to Treccani, Italy's most important dictionary, to change the definition of the expression “Can I help?” within home and to reflect on gender inequality at home in a public space like social media, where people could also participate and start a debate on the topic.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The insight that guided us during the creation of the campaign is that "Can I Help?" is one of the most common and wrong phrases said at home when it comes to household chores. Through this campaign IKEA wanted to declare that "the first step in eliminating the gender gap phenomenon must be done at home" pointing out why that expression contributes to the gender gap at home. The campaign mainly lived on IKEA's social channels, through an open social letter to Treccani and on Treccani's channels, where the Italian dictionary answered our letter. Moreover, the initiative has sparked a debate on other channels: a series of influencers, KOLs, newspapers and media intercepted the campaign and gave their opinion on the subject, turning the campaign into a real national and international news.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In order to get as much media coverage as possible, the open letter to Treccani, was posted and "sent" through Facebook and Instagram. In this way anyone, users and media, had the opportunity to read, interact and report the IKEA's message in the newspapers. In addition, Treccani's response, which arrived punctually during the day, was another moment to let the community discuss about the campaign. Following the release of the letter, IKEA also published a series of "provocative" multi-subject posts. In these contents in fact we invited men not to help women at home, underlining once again how "help" is not the correct verb to use if you want to fight gender inequality at home.

List the results (30% of vote)

On International Women's Day, IKEA's campaign was the most discussed one in Italy. Moreover, combining the brand's content with the media and newspaper coverage, 1 out of 4 people in Italy saw our message. The campaign also generated a media value of more than 7 million euros in organic reach and the social content related to International Women's Day generated an engagement rate 1114% higher than the average brand post.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

In order to create a truly insightful campaign regarding the unequal behavior of people at home, we analyzed the way they behaved starting with language analysis and data related to household chores. What emerged was that, on the one hand women do 74% of the housework, and on the other hand one of the most commonly used phrases in this context is "Can I help?". What we have noticed combining the information, therefore, is how the use of the verb to help, which seems harmless and kind, actually hides a cultural bias perpetuated for decades. In fact, this phrase takes for granted that household chores are a woman's responsibility. For this reason, we wanted to work precisely on language to reflect on gender inequality at home and generate a positive discussion on the topic.