Her Circle
Empowering women to reduce poverty
Overview
In the Asia–Pacific region, women and children are up to 14 times more likely than men to die or be injured in a disaster or its aftermath. Recovery is also harder for women following a disaster, meaning they are more likely to die at a young age.
This is because women often have less savings to rebuild their homes and lives, and less influence over decisions about how a community collectively rebuilds. Around the world, women are also more likely to live in poverty than men. Poverty and injustice cannot be overcome until all people have access to the same resources and opportunities – regardless of gender.
CARE Australia’s Her Circle campaign centres around ‘the multiplier effect’ – the notion that when a woman escapes poverty, she brings four others with her. It explores the concept of women being the changemakers, and pillars of their communities, families and networks.
Icon Agency was engaged by CARE Australia to bring their Her Circle campaign to life through a dedicated PR and influencer campaign – created by women, for women, with an all-female team – to build awareness amongst the Australian community around how poverty affects women globally, and how they can help.
Objectives
The key campaign objective was to increase awareness of CARE Australia and the issues they work to address, centring around International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022 and 2023. To generate awareness amongst a like-minded audience with the capacity, values and passion that would make them more likely to show support. In 2022, the Her Circle campaign targeted Australians aged 25 to 40 and an extended target audience in 2023 of Australians aged 25 to 45.
We were also seeking to establish new brand ambassadors and partnerships, both short-term and long-term, to build CARE Australia’s presence and network for future appeals, campaigns and initiatives. There was minimal spend allocated to paid influencer marketing, and no paid above-the-line spend, with the campaign leaning almost entirely on earned and shared content.
Solution
Throughout both years of the campaign, we invited people to think about their circle, their support networks, colleagues, mentors or friends, and how women can uplift one another.
We engaged influencers, ambassadors and brand partners whose visions align with CARE’s to become the ‘voices’ and advocates for Her Circle. Through earned media, social media videos, partnerships, events and webinars, we were able to reach a wide and diverse audience to generate awareness and conversation about how to support women affected by poverty.
Ambassador engagement
Since the inception of the Her Circle campaign, ambassadors have been an integral part of Her Circle. Icon curated and liaised with a long list of target ambassadors, before securing five Her Circle ambassadors over the two-year period:
Allira Potter (2022) – Social media influencer and advocate for Indigenous and women’s rights
Ashleigh Streeter-Jones (2022) – Writer, public speaker and gender equality activist
Nyadol Nyuon (2022/23) – Australian lawyer, human rights advocate and media commentator
Grace Tame (2023) – Author, and activist. She is a survivor-advocate for people who have experienced sexual assault and is the 2021 Australian of the Year.
2022 Results
PR:
17,952,880 total potential reach through earned media (PR), against a target of 3M
14 pieces of earned media: 40% over target
100% of media coverage included direct key messaging
100% of media coverage included the direct voice of a CARE Australia spokesperson, exceeding target range by 64–78.5%
42% of media publications re-shared content across their owned (social) channels
Influencer coverage:
828.8K through influencer marketing (digital)
52 pieces of influencer marketing content (against a target of 5 pieces)
618k total potential reach
3.58k combined likes and comments
3 brand ambassadors secured against a target of 1
6 new meaningful partnerships established
2022 media coverage:
The Age
Sydney Morning Herald
Brisbane Times
WAtoday
Harper’s BAZAAR
Canberra Weekly
POPSUGAR
2023 Results
PR:
263 media articles/interactions generated (56 in tier-one media)
20,367,165 total audience reach
100% included Her Circle messaging
55% including CARE Australia spokesperson commentary
Influencer coverage:
8 x social media influencers secured (paid and in-kind)
35 pieces of social media influencer coverage
>978k potential influencer reach
21,345,165 total audience reach
3.4k combined likes and comments
57.8k post and story impressions
2023 media coverage:
Covered widely in Australian Community Media (The Canberra Times, The Examiner, Newcastle Herald)
10 News First
9Honey
Triple M Radio
2UE Sydney
Women’s Agenda
Instyle Magazine
Impact in 2022
With Icon’s support, CARE Australia website traffic increased 1,557 per cent year-on-year as compared with the same 4-week period the previous year. This corresponds to 126,000 Her Circle–specific web sessions, which equates to eight months of regular traffic. The majority of traffic (96K) originated through social media.
While brand searches were up 21 per cent, the campaign also drove substantial increases in people searching for ‘CARE Australia’ and an improved web bounce rate.
We went above and beyond for our clients, not just meeting KPIs but beating them. We secured 3 ambassadors (3 times what we promised) and secured 6 partnership opportunities (6 times the client’s KPI). The media coverage we earned was 40% over target.
The client was “blown away” by the results, stating, “[the] numbers [were] way beyond anything they could have anticipated. [They were] thrilled by the incredible boost to CARE’s brand awareness.