NEWS
THE MAKING OF THE MOST TRANSFORMATIVE IDEA OF 2017
At ADFEST 2018, Joyce King Thomas gave a fascinating talk explaining the making of ‘Fearless Girl’ – one of the most transformative ideas to emerge from our industry in recent years. As Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of McCann XBC, Thomas was part of the team that installed a statue of a small girl standing fearlessly in front of Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull. Commissioned by State Street Global Advisors to promote the SHE Fund, which invests in companies that promote women into positions of leadership, Fearless Girl captured the world’s attention on International Women’s Day, March 2017. “She weighed 110 kilograms. He weighed three tonnes. There was a huge disparity; it’s a David & Goliath story – she was designed to let everyone know about the transformative power of women in leadership,” explained Thomas. Thomas shared the reasons why she thinks Fearless Girl has been so phenomenally effective. #1. Humanity over technology. “I love tech, but humanity is always going to beat technology. Fearless Girl was not digital or technological. She’s a statue – a 30,000 year-old medium. Statues were first used to honour historic figures. There are 150 statues honoring men in New York City and only five honoring historical women in New York City. So a statue became the perfect way for us to talk about this issue: the power of women in leadership,” said Thomas. #2. The perfect product was half of our job. “One thing we probably all know is it’s easier to make an ad that changes the world for a product that changes the world. State Street had created the SHE Fund after finding that companies with women in leadership roles perform better. Why? The reason is that everyone doesn’t agree. It’s not an echo chamber. “There are diverse opinions and ideas and those kind of companies do better in the long run. Of course, agencies don’t always have perfect products to work with so if the client doesn’t have one, make one. As creatives, we have the power to make transformative ideas now.” #3. Great ideas often begin with an imperfect idea. Thomas said: “That was certainly the case with Fearless Girl. Before the team came up with this idea of a little girl, they said: ‘What if we do a Wall Street cow on the other side of the Wall Street bull? It was a perfectly logical idea, but the problem is no woman on the planet wanted to be called a cow. The idea went to the client who said, ‘It’s quite an intriguing thought to disrupt the Wall Street Bull, but… no, thank you.’” “But the agency didn’t stop there. They considered a lot of things until someone came up with the idea of a little eight year-old girl who holds the promise of the future and had all the potential to change the world. The client absolutely loved that idea.” #4. Details are everything. “We were lucky with the product, but we were relentless with the detail,” said Thomas. The agency agonised over every tiny detail, starting with Fearless Girl’s pose. “We looked at powerful women like Beyoncéand Wonder Woman. We saw that there’s a common pose called the power pose where you put your hands on your waist, and that became the pose of Fearless Girl. We also knew people could imitate this pose – and they did.” “We were kind of crazy about all the other details as well. Her ponytail is the kind every little girl all over the world wears. The bronze matches the bronze of the bull perfectly. We also made sure we had a woman sculpt her, Kristen Visbal, and her first photograph was taken by a female journalist.” Originally, McCann was going to launch Fearless Girl on International Women’s Day on March 8. But just 10 days before the launch, they realised it made more sense to launch the day before. This meant people would come and pose with her on International Women’s Day, sharing their photos on social media with the world. At 2am in the morning on 7th March, Fearless Girl was dropped into place. The agency had a detailed PR, communications and influencer strategy, but they didn’t need to use it – news of Fearless Girl spread like wildfire. Then the tattoos happened, and the memes came. Of course, not everything was perfect Not everyone loved Fearless Girl. The artist that created the Charging Bull felt that Fearless Girl subverted his art and ruined his artistic integrity. He asked the city to take her away – but that wasn’t going to happen. On social media, there were lots of trolls who felt that women’s place was not in leadership positions. McCann’s Facebook page was even taken over several times by “crazy women haters”. “But we persisted, our client persisted, and Fearless Girl ended up staying a full year – and the mayor made that happen,” said Thomas, explaining how the people of New York got behind Fearless Girl, too.The ripple effect Since her debut on 7th March 2017, Fearless Girl has had more positive impact than McCann ever imagined she would. The SHE fund has grown, and State Street became a more progressive voice in the financial services industry. “But that really was not the biggest thing that happened. When we launched Fearless Girl, State Street went out and said: ‘We invest in a lot of companies in America, and if you don’t have any women on your board, we’re going to vote against everything you want.’” One in four companies in the US still do not have any women on their board. But when State Street announced this initiative, one year later, 150 companies have added at least one woman to their board and 36 more have sworn to, according to Thomas: “Now, State Street is looking to do the same in Japan, Europe, Canada, and is also working with companies in Australia. So this could make real impact.” She quoted the Head of State Street Global Advisers as saying: “We believe we have finally arrived at a tipping point in gender equality.” Thomas admitted she’s not positive that that’s true – but she thinks we’re on the way. She concluded by inviting the world to come and see Fearless Girl for themselves: “The other good news is that Fearless Girl isn’t leaving New York, she is going to stay here indefinitely – please come to see her, she’ll be there waiting.” * Joyce King Thomas presented a session called, 'How a 30,000 year old medium became the most transformative idea of 2017' at ADFEST 2018 on 24th March.
