"All Strength, No Sweat"
Secret, the first antiperspirant brand designed specifically for women, manufactured by Procter & Gamble, is continuing to grow their movement around women and gender-equality. For the past 60 years, Secret has been providing superior odor and wetness protection for women.
They also know and understand the demand for meaningful brands, so they have been closing in on women's empowerment across all their marketing efforts. In this blog, Hollywood Branded explores the new gender-equality campaign Secret is launching, "All Strength No Sweat" with Serena Williams.
What Has Secret Done Before?
Over the past year, Secret has made gender equality in sports a key focus of its marketing efforts in numerous ways. They have donated $529,000 to the U.S. Women’s Nation Team Player’s Association in hopes to shrink the gender pay gap in soccer. In addition, Secret, also bought and passed out more than 9,000 tickets to the National Women’s Soccer League games to increase attendance and proceeds. Secret also made a commitment to the next generation of female athletes by supporting the Girls Leading Girls organization and publicly backed soccer star Carli Lloyd’s NFL ambitions.
More recently, at the Golden Globes, Secret ran an ad featuring celebrity women to promote the "All Strength, No Sweat" platform that celebrates active, hard-working women. The effort has also included a social media push in which the P&G brand asked real women to share their stories on Instagram. This movement is an extension of Secret’s commitment to women. According to P&G, this campaign celebrates “those who boldly challenge the status quo, push through barriers and stand up for what they believe in, without “sweating” the obstacles that may come their way. Secret challenges women everywhere to be all strength, no sweat.”
All Strength No Sweat
Supporting female athletes and advocating for equality has been a core focus for Secret. And now they are taking this support to the next level with their new campaign, All Strength No Sweat. This new partnership will be launching next month and tennis champion, Serena Williams will be their big partner. Williams stated that Secret “has a history of supporting women’s issues and fighting for women’s equality. That’s what I do. I fight for equality and I’m vocal about gender bias. It only makes sense for me to join in this charge with Secret.” This movement will also include the promise of an additional $1 million in support of equality programs.
Why Serena Williams?
Williams wants to use her platform to bring attention to some of the issues faced by women in sports and to call for change. Williams said in a statement, “Sports changed my life and I feel compelled to continue giving back to ensure a brighter future for women in sports. I am incredibly honored to join forces with Secret and look forward to partnering closely to further the fight for gender equality for all athletes.” Secret chose Williams not only because of her 23 Grand Slam titles and four gold medals, but also because she is a dedicated sister, daughter, and mother. Secret knew she would be an awesome fit as she is an incredibly well-rounded individual and has a deep understanding of equality and unfairness because of the career she has had.
Throughout her profession, Williams, has played a part in trying to shrink the gender-inequality issues. After she competed in Wimbledon this past July, she stated, “the day I stop fighting for equality and for people that look like you and me will be the day I’m in my grave.”
S By Serena
Williams has also used her fashion choices and her label as a way to express her mission. “At last year’s French Open, Williams wore a Virgil-Abloh designed black-and-white Nike outfit that was inscribed with the words “champion,” “queen” and “goddess.” Williams’ look was considered a follow-up to her Nike compression “catsuit” from the year before." Williams wore it to avoid blood clots but was it was expelled by the French Tennis Federation, as it was said that it did not follow the dress code.
In addition, Williams launched her fashion brand “S by Serena” at New York Fashion Week last fall and, launching several campaigns to promote body confidence. One campaign was the Twist Front Dress, for “everybody and every body.” The dress is shown on all women of various sizes and shapes and it has a v-neckline that twists at the waist and then hits at the midi skirt length. Williams wanted to prove this was legitimate for everyone so she posted a video on Instagram showing the dress on all different types of women.
As the video shows, the women all talk about how the dress feels and how confident it makes them. Williams’ half-sister, Isha Price, says “you know I’m curvey, but I’m confident in my curves. You have really taken something and made it work for different sizes.” Williams mentions that “our brand caters to all women. It’s not just one type, one size or one woman. We’re all different and the Serena brand embraces our differences.”
Secret & Serena
Secret and Williams will begin their partnership by starting a study to see how gender bias surfaces in sports, including everything from high school to professional levels. Associate brand director for Secret, Sara Saunders, says “we’re going to take those learnings and identify the key opportunities for how we—Serena and Secret—are going to spend the next $1 million.” Saunders then goes on to say, “we really want to understand things from the women themselves who are living it.” This partnership will consist of several campaigns featuring Williams and building on the brand’s continuous efforts and commitment to fighting gender inequality.
Carolyn Tastad, group president, North America and executive sponsor, gender equality at P&G said,“at P&G, we believe an equal world is a better world for all of us. We are committed to using our brand voices to help spark conversations, change mindsets and drive real societal change." This partnership is extremely organic and going to be a great way for Williams and Secret to share their mission.
Ready To Work With A Celebrity Influencer?
Brands long for celebrity influencers because they dramatically raise sales, especially when they share goals. Take a look at these blogs our team wrote on celebrity endorsement deals:
- 8 Steps to Leverage Celebrity Talent To A Brand's Advantage
- 7 Ways To Work With Celebrity Influencers
- Hiring Celebrity Endorsers As Brand Creative Directors
- What Brands Need To Know When Choosing A Celebrity Endorser
- The Celebrity Athlete Endorser: High Reward And Low Risk
Are you interested in learning the ins and outs of using influencers and celebrities in your marketing techniques? Hollywood Branded's Influencer Marketing School will give you all the need to knows for your influencer marketing game. Just click below!
