| Story | As of 2023, women still only make up only 23% of the tech sector - a number that hasn’t gone up since 1984. Hackergal, a not-for-profit located in Toronto, Canada, is dedicated to helping young women break through gender barriers so they can code, create, and become the tech leaders of tomorrow. We can all rattle off names like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook, but fewer of us can name influential women in the tech world - with one exception: smart speakers. Women make up less than a third of the tech sector but voice almost 100% of our robot assistants. Knowing this, we developed a campaign that played off this irony to help drive interest in Hackergal (via website visits) and donations, to help give women a voice in tech. Entry Description: Whether they’re giving us directions or setting a timer, almost all of the devices that make our lives easier are voiced by women. Which means sadly, the easiest way to speak to a woman in tech today is to say “Hey, Alexa.” We created a campaign to point out this irony, and to raise awareness for Hackergal’s initiatives. Posters, social posts, and guerrilla in-store tactics asked readers to consider why the most famous women in tech, were the ones living in their devices, and encouraged them to help give women a real voice by supporting Hackergal. Our posters featured a well-known smart device, like Alexa or Siri, and asked the viewer to consider why they knew its name, but not the names of any real women in tech.To build awareness, we then placed these messages in key high-traffic areas throughout the city near actual devices in key tech retail channels, and posted them across Hackergal’s social channels, all in an effort to drive traffic and donations. Impact: Over the course of the December 2023 campaign, Hackergal saw a significant increase in donations and online traffic, with campaign Instagram reels seeing a 406% lift in viewership compared to other Hackergal posts. Instagram followers even reached out to ask if they could purchase the posters for themselves, all in support of giving women a real voice in tech. Specifically, during the campaign period, the Hackergal campaign drove an impressive: - 150% Increase in Donations YOY (vs. Dec 2022) - 493% Increase in Donation Page visits (vs. Nov 2023) - 201% Increase in Homepage traffic But most importantly, we helped Hackergal show young women everywhere that they belong in tech, not just inside tech. “The first of its kind for Hackergal, this campaign provided us with eye-catching assets faithful to our brand and actively challenged viewers to confront the persistent gender gap in Canadian tech.” Rebecca Hazell, Executive Director, Hackergal |
