How Lego used PR to shift gender stereotypes for young girls
Winning Gold at The Drum Awards for PR International is the Lego Group for More than Perfect. Here is the award-winning case study from the agency Exposure London.
An example of the award-winning work / Lego Group
Objectives
Girls as young as five are having their creativity hampered by the pressure of perfection which limits their willingness to experiment, take risks and even explore creative careers. Over three-quarters of girls aspire to work in male-dominated creative industries, according to research by the Lego Group.
With this insight, Exposure London was tasked to address how to shift parental behaviour and cultural perceptions born out of deeply entrenched gender stereotypes. The objective was not only to raise awareness of this bias but also to inspire and equip parents and teachers with the tools needed to help change girls’ futures. With no paid media, the agency had to find a way to punch above its weight.
Brief
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The campaign was built on the Lego Group's global study surveying over 61,532 respondents, including 36,000 parents with children aged 1-12 years old, and 25,532 children aged 5-12 across 36 countries. It revealed that gender language biases apply the world over.
The findings were enlightening. More than three in five girls report feeling pressure from society's messages of perfection and 71% of girls say everyday language makes them worry about making mistakes.
Specifically, society is seven times more likely to attribute terms like sweet', 'pretty', 'cute' and 'beautiful' exclusively to females. While terms such as 'brave', 'cool', 'genius' and 'innovative' are twice as likely to be attributed to males. The study also found that over half of the children believe adults listen more to boys' creative ideas than girls.
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The research findings were released in an earned media blitz on March 5 2024, accompanied by the film ‘More Than Perfect’ which explored the effect that language can have on girls' creative confidence.
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Developed in partnership with Dr Anika Petrella, Researcher and Psychotherapist, and Jennifer Wallace, Harvard-trained parenting researcher and bestselling author, the film calls on parents of girls and society at large to stand up for girls’ creativity.
Not content with just raising awareness of the problem, the agency provided free creativity workshops in Lego stores and on Lego.com for young creators and developed a 10 Steps to Fostering Creative Confidence guide to equip parents and teachers with fun tips to support creative development.
To work towards systemic change, the Lego Group and the Lego Foundation partnered with Save the Children to directly support girls by setting up clubs and workshops.
Results
With no paid media, the campaign achieved widespread media conversation and debate which sparked a global conversation about language bias.
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Tens of thousands of girls gained new creative confidence, thousands of families signed up for the free creative workshops and multiple parents and teachers requested the use of the ‘Lego Creative Confidence Guide’.
The campaign had a 2.2bn total potential reach and a 56m potential broadcast reach, including a four-minute BBC interview with Susie Dent. It achieved 1,035 pieces of coverage with lead articles in The Times, Forbes, BBC News, Sky News, La Repubblica, Metro, Parents and AdWeek.
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There was a 99% positive or neutral sentiment across 60 countries and a +21pp positive sentiment compared to a Lego Group DE&I campaign average. 159,000 social engagements and 10,000 girls directly supported via Save the Children partnership. There were also 4,500 bookings for the Lego Retail workshops.
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