Case Study: Celebrating the women of Port Phillip
Brand: Live Love Work Port Phillip
Campaign: 2022 International Women’s Day
Since 2019, I have worked with my fellow Live Love Work Port Phillip Founders to celebrate the women of Port Phillip for International Women’s Day.
For three years we delivered a breakfast event that was bigger and better than the year before. Friends were made and networks built as we celebrated the women who live, love, work and run businesses in Port Phillip.
In 2022 we set ourselves some lofty goals. More people, a bigger venue, more sponsors, be famous throughout Victoria for our celebration of Port Phillip women, and keep building connections and strengthening relationships between attendees as we celebrated International Women's Day.
Our problem was the unstable environment that we were living in. Would the Omricon wave lock us down again or force attendance limits? Would people commit to pre-purchasing tickets six weeks before the event, and would they expect a refund if they were ill on the day?
While we were excited about delivering Live Love Work Port Phillip’s biggest and best event ever, we were also closely monitoring the risks associated with our breakfast, developing mitigation strategies, and investigating options available to us.
The external environment and community sentiment at the time was fluid making it challenging to forecast, and impossible to predict. By 14th January we needed to decide if we would proceed with our breakfast or revert to one of our back up plans, and if so which one.
We called past sponsors and attendees to ask them if they would be prepared to attend an in-person event in the first week of March? Would they pre-purchase tickets when they went on sale? Would they attend a Zoom event with a breakfast pack if the event was shut down, or a Zoom only event, and how much would they pay for a ticket?
The results were mixed, however the consensus at the time of undertaking the research was our audience was hesitant about pre-purchasing tickets and there were various levels of appetite to attend an in-person or online event at that point in time.
We agreed the unstable external environment and feedback from past sponsors and attendees washed against the financial implications was deemed a risk too great, and we chose not to proceed with our breakfast or remote event to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Instead, we created a campaign to lift our collective voices to a ROAR in celebration of International Women’s Day, and shine a light on the heart, soul and smarts of the women of Port Phillip.
We wrote stories about women in our community – the women who live, love, work and run businesses in Port Phillip and those who came before us and paved the way. Their stories were read and shared extensively reaching existing and new audiences across social media and business networking platforms.
We invited businesses to come on board as financial sponsors - and they did. Their support enabled us to run outdoor and social media advertising. And our traders and local businesses got behind us putting our posters in their windows.
Our results speak for themselves. We shared the stories of 27 women, we had over 200 outdoor posters across Port Phillip and 150 posters in traders’ windows to celebrate International Women’s Day and shine a light on the women of Port Phillip. Our campaign reached over 400,000 people and delivered 1.35 million impressions – a 100% increase in on the previous year results. And our audience and community said: ‘you were everywhere’, ‘I loved reading the women’s stories’, and ‘are you having the breakfast next year?’.
Live Love Work Port Phillips celebration of 2022 International Women’s Day was different. We missed connecting face to face, building relationships and feeling the energy in a room filled with people celebrating and supporting each other.
But we never lost sight of our overall objective to celebrate the women of Port Phillip. Our campaign was developed to connect people, and encourage them to come on the journey with us through sharing stories, recognising, celebrating and supporting each other.
Together, lifted our collective voice to a ROAR, in celebration of International Women's Day and the women who live, love, work and run businesses in Port Phillip.
I encourage all businesses when creating a campaign to keep your eye on your business objectives to ensure you remain focused on the campaign objectives and monitor the external environment and listened to your customers. Ensure your campaign evokes an emotional response and builds and strengthens the connection between your audience and your brand. Always measure and monitor the campaigns performance and undertake a Post-mortem to document your results (the good, the bad and the ugly), your learnings, and your recommendations for the future.
Alison McDowell
Co-founder Live Love Work Port Phillip
Founder, Roadmap Strategy marketing partner agency
If you would like to learn more about Live Love Work Port Phillip, what we have planned for the future, or find out more about working with us, sponsoring us, or supporting our next campaign please give Alison call on 0411 135 317 or email Alison@roadmapstrategy.com.au
My fellow Live Love Work Port Phillip founder and I operate marketing partner and creative advertising agencies in South Melbourne. We welcome the opportunity to learn more about your business, your marketing problems and explore how we can help you achieve your business goals. We can assist you as little or as much as you need across marketing strategy, brand, creative, websites, social media, PR, and outsourced marketing operational services.
Live Love Work Port Phillip Founders
Roadmap Strategy The Incubator
South Melbourne South Melbourne
P 0411 135 317 P 0408 956 151
E alison@roadmapstrategy.com.au E vesna@theincubator.com.au
We would also like to recognise and thank the businesses who sponsored our 2022 International Women’s Day campaign.
· Australian Grand Prix Corporation
· Cox Auto
· 13 Cabs
· Starward
And especially thank the women who allowed us to share their stories as part of our 2022 International Women's Campaign
- Amanda Bury, General Manager, Chisholm & Gamon
- Adrienne Oxenham, Owner, Babe's Farm Fresh Produce, South Melbourne Market
- Claire Culley, CEO, The OTIS Foundation
- Carla Butler, Owner & Sleep Coach, ORA Sleep Coaching
- Patty Karakostas, Hospitality & Experience Manager, Starward Whisky
- Faye & Jane Lewis, Publicans, The Emerald Hotel
- Wendy Stirling, President, Port Phillip Rotary
- Sophie Hanlon, Graphic Designer and Copy Writer, The Incubator
- Anna Budilov, Digital Marketing & eCommerce Co-ordinator, Patient Wolf
- Corinne Maxfield, Program Leader, Events, Tourism and Travel, William Angliss Institute
- Julie Scott, Chair, Chapel Street Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
- Jessica Bram, Director and CEO, Jewish Museum of Australia
- Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie, Honorary Consul General of France in Melbourne
- Clare Mendes, Company Manager, Melbourne Writers Theatre
- Tatyana Anderson, Owner, Tatyana Design and Tatyana School of Couture
- Helen Doyle, Artist
- Belinda Felstead & Vera Lukic, Owners, The Integrative Hub
- Soula Alexander, Owner, The Voice
