Challenge
Whether it’s for a LinkedIn profile or a performance review, self-promotion can feel unnatural, awkward or downright embarrassing. And if you’re a woman, even more so. Research says they’re four times more likely to shrink their successes and use undermining language. This has been linked to a host of negative outcomes such as fewer promotions, the gender pay gap and a lack of women in senior roles.
So, for International Women’s Day, AnalogFolk decided to change the narrative. We wanted to inspire action and create positive change, in keeping with our company mission of using digital to make the analog world better. As well as addressing equality, the theme for that year, we wanted to have a long-term impact. And tackle the bigger societal issue of women habitually playing down their successes.
Solution
BigUp.AI is an award-winning AI tool that helps women describe their skills more confidently. And, in turn, to reconsider the language they use to talk about themselves. It uses cutting-edge Microsoft LUIS Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning technology to identify passive language and give more powerful, positive alternatives.
For phase two, launching in a Covid-19 landscape, BigUp.AI will go wider. It uses the latest advances in NLP tech for a smarter AI that can read and analyse whole sentences. And with six months of training at beta stage behind it, it delivers more complex bigged up statements – a timely reminder for women to own their self-worth in an uncertain period. In keeping with our agency ambition of being an impactful agency of change, BigUp.AI is a long-term initiative that we’ll keep improving as the technology develops.
Results
BigUp.AI won a Future Impact Pencil for Initiative at the D&AD Awards 2020.
The phase one launch received 10k impressions in the first 24 hours, with no media spend. It was picked up by press around the world and became a trending topic online, with Adobo Magazine calling
the tool ‘amazing’.
We worked with and received support from inspiring industry partners including
She Runs It, WACL, Bayer Consumer Health and Coca-Cola.
And on a more individual level, we found friends, colleagues and contacts from across industries were interacting with the tool and using the bigged-up phrases to push themselves further in their careers.
To try the tool, click here or go to BigUp.AI.