Have you come across the term “femvertising”?

It is not a new thing at all, but at some point it simply got a name. It was probably first used in 2014. Since then there have been plenty of ads which, in the spirit of that word, promote women’s values.

What is femvertising? It is advertising aimed at women, representing the values today’s women identify with. It is also advertising that speaks for them — the common feature of these ads is empowerment.

It shows the dynamics between the factors of personal agency and the factors of structural opportunity as women make important life choices.

Which means what, exactly? Thanks to these ads we can draw attention to the problems women face every day. They may concern stereotypes just as much as the pay gap.

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What femvertising is not.

It is not advertising for products for women.

It is advertising that is the complete opposite of how women were portrayed in the ads of several decades of the last century — mothers and housewives. We do not want to see that image of women any more. Why? Because many women no longer identify with it. According to data in the report “E-commerce in Poland 2021”, prepared by Gemius for e-Commerce Poland, women in Poland shop online more often than men. In 2021 the share of women making online purchases was 53%.

All right, we now know that women make purchasing decisions online more often. What does that have to do with femvertising? Simply this: if we buy more often, we will also be on the receiving end of online advertising more often.

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But surely an ad can just say “Buy me”

Unfortunately that is a way of thinking I do not accept. These days we increasingly experience marketing built on the relationship between a company and its customer.

Women look far more carefully at ingredient lists and at reviews found online. They get to know brands much more thoroughly, reading up on their values and their mission. We are all alert now to things like greenwashing, and perhaps so-called “female intuition” helps us get to the truth faster. Let us set the stereotypes aside, though. Women often look for inspiration and motivation, and they pay attention to the values your brand operates by. Emphasising those values and showing evidence that they are more than slogans — that they really translate into how the company works — can increase interest in your brand among women.

What does advertising aimed at women look like?

Marketing that uses femvertising focuses above all on bringing out what the English word “empowerment” conveys.

What is the structure of such an ad?
Brands aimed at women have empowerment written into their mission. It is not always said outright, but a clever, vivid and symbolic use of that mission can move a great many people, online and off. On the basis of a given brand’s values, a selection is made of the values that matter especially to us — women.

Examples will show you best “how it’s done”.

Always — We exist to help every girl and woman build her confidence, so that you can be whatever you want to be in life. We want each of you to live life to the full, and we are here to support you. We know women are remarkable and have limitless potential. You are strong and you can do anything you set your mind to.

Remember the “Like a girl” campaign? It shows that the phrase “doing something like a girl” is not a negative or pejorative description in the minds of young girls. “Running like a girl means running as fast as I can!” says one of them. Adults of both sexes and boys, asked what it means to do something like a girl, gave us a caricature of fighting and running. It is time to change the meaning of “Like a girl”.

See for yourself.

Dove is a brand guided from the very beginning by the mission of discovering the beauty in each of us and nurturing it. We believe real beauty is not subject to canons; it lies in diversity.

Dove has given us many beautiful campaigns. They focus mainly on confidence, on rejecting name-calling and on loving yourself. Their campaigns are at times genuinely moving, and in a single minute they can convey as much as a ten-minute film. The latest campaign, “Hard knocks”, is about why girls give up sport. The culprit is a problem with confidence and with accepting how they look.

The YES brand is not only original jewellery for women, but also a mission to create a world that will be a better, more equal place for them, free of stereotypes.

In Poland we can make beautiful femvertising campaigns too. The YES campaign “I am a woman” is a very good example. The campaign had several editions, and the most recent, “A portrait of a woman”, built around a poem by Wisława Szymborska, is about female frustration. The frustration comes from what the world around us expects. The poem has a timeless resonance, because 50 years on we still have the same frustrations.

Women’s month is there to make us aware of important aspects of womanhood in business and in life. We differ from one another beautifully, and the representatives of different genders differ from one another beautifully too. This is not a month in which we say women are BETTER. We talk about the qualities we show, and we act in the spirit of empowerment, so that each of us dares to reach high.