Kamala Harris was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States, becoming the first female, Black, and South Asian-American to hold that esteemed office—a ground-breaking milestone. The moment of Harris's swearing in was particularly important for young girls everywhere. To celebrate this historic moment and capture its impact, Ogilvy partnered with Girl Up, the gender equality youth initiative of the United Nations Foundation, and Refinery29 to create “Today We Rise”, a film that goes straight into homes across the country to show the impact of the very moment itself in real time. The film was quickly edited together and was completed just hours after the ceremony.
The Inauguration of Kamala Harris was an inflection point and Ogilvy celebrated it with a message of hope and possibility “when one girl rises, all girls do”. The film invited viewers to visit Girl Up’s website to discover more about their programs and initiatives. The United Nations, together with some of their ambassadors, actors and celebrities stepped in to spread the message, sharing the film on their social feeds to huge numbers of followers.
The results of the film were unprecedented for Girl Up. With zero production or media budget, Girl Up grew +2567% in brand engagement, and with the help of Refinery29 as media partner, the campaign reached a total of 26M people (vs a weekly average of 587K). Despite the extremely polarised political horizon, the film had an incredibly positive response, with 95% positive sentiment.
