| Story | Whether it’s music, cruises, trains, or planes, Virgin has a long record of taking the status quo and upending it. Now, Richard Branson’s company is doing the same thing with the way people view dyslexia, reframing it as a positive genetic difference rather than a negative health issue. As a dyslexic himself, Sir Richard has the perfect platform to help remove the stigma around dyslexia. By changing perceptions of something widely considered negative, Virgin proves to the world once again that they are a brand dedicated to changing the way people view the world around them. The word “dyslexia” has an outdated stigma and negative perception - particularly in the workplace. But many highly successful people are dyslexic, including Sir Richard Branson. So Virgin partnered with Made by Dyslexia, LinkedIn, and Dictionary.com to shift focus to the term “dyslexic thinking” - a phrase that highlights all the positive skills people with dyslexia possess. To raise awareness, LinkedIn changed its platform to feature dyslexic thinking as an official skill all 810 million users can add to their profiles. Dictionary.com then vetted it through their rigorous accreditation process and added it to their dictionary. By recognizing dyslexic thinking in such high profile ways, we were finally able to begin shifting people’s perceptions. The campaign was immediately taken up by international broadcasters, gaining 255 unique pieces of coverage from major publications including the BBC, Sky and Bloomberg with an opportunity to see of 1,046,067,131 at a media value of approximately £1M. Tracking the public sentiment across social media, we saw positive mentions about dyslexia increase by 1562%, while negative mentions decreased by 4450% from pre-campaign levels. A clear indication that the campaign was resonating and starting to change the perception of dyslexia. Within 30 days, 13,000 HR and recruitment leaders had also viewed the advert explaining how Dyslexic Thinkers could help take their company to the next level. Finally, and most importantly, over 10,200 people had added “Dyslexic Thinking” as a skill on LinkedIn, a number which continues to grow to this day, and which global companies including Facebook, EY, HSBC, and Microsoft are already seeking out in their recruitment. |
