This year, the brand’s First Strides initiative focused on highlighting under-represented women in the film industry through our Red Carpet Strides campaign. We had two objectives in mind: 1. to raise awareness about the film industry’s gender gap, and 2. to help close it by encouraging and enabling consumers to watch more women-made films.
Filosofia
We celebrated women-made films throughout March, with all of our communications uniting under one rallying cry: watch more women-made films. Because when more people watch women-made films, more get made. We launched a successful partnership with streaming service MUBI, promoting female directors; we placed strategic OOH media in key locations around Hollywood; we projected our message in over 200 movie theaters around the country; we created a intimate at-home viewing experience on social, using influencers and cocktail kits; and we partnered with talent, like Laura Dern and Chloé Zhao, to amplify the voices of changemakers in the industry.
Problema
In 95 years of the Oscars, only three women have won the Academy Award for Best Director — and none were nominated in 2023. To recognize all the incredible talent who would not walkHollywood’s red carpet, we wove our own carpet, honoring the trailblazing strides of seven filmmaking women. We worked with a team of fine artists, female textile workers, and the filmmakers themselves to bring our carpet to life It was unveiled at Women In Film's and Vanity Fair's iconic Oscars parties.
Resultado
Overall, the Red Carpet Strides campaign has generated impactful conversation across the media landscape, producing over 90 placements, 66.5m media impressions, and 1.9 billion earned impressions to date. Since launching the First Strides initiative in March 2022, Johnnie Walker has contributed $1M+ to support women's progress.