International Women’s Day is a widely celebrated annual awareness day that encourages empowerment, education and equality for women across the globe. Businesses should be striving to improve in these areas all year round, so IWD is a great opportunity to showcase how they’re doing that. 

Childrenswear brand MORI had a nice approach in their email with a focus on female business founders, as well as championing the women behind their brand. We loved this, and perhaps it would have been even better if those messages had been above the product-push in the secondary content.

Pip & Nut hit the mark by using their platform to shout out fellow purpose-driven female-founded Bcorps without a single attempt at pushing their own product, plus they offered discounts to use with those brands. The copy is informative without losing their usual friendly, informal tone of voice and they address the problems women face in business whilst remaining positive about the future of female entrepreneurship. 

Others did similar by highlighting women in their industries who are leading the way. Surfdome linked to stories about female climate activists, explorers, surfers, skateboarders and more, whilst Taste of London celebrated talented women in the world of hospitality and food media.

Frame put their fellow female-founded businesses within their own community forward in their IWD email, which feels particularly thoughtful as they are all small brands. We also like how they’ve not been afraid to celebrate women for softness and support in their copy, a nice touch from a fitness company when many of those often mainly shout about being strong and tough.

Carrying on the theme of uplifting female entrepreneurs, frank body took the novel initiative of offering mentoring sessions led by the women of their HQ. You just had to reply to the email and the first 10 people to do so per category were chosen. Effective and impressive, especially considering this year’s IWD theme of #EmbraceEquity.

It does seem, however, that many brands overlook the global element of IWD. So it was great to see Kate Spade shout about their social impact work, through which they aim to provide 100,000 women and girls around the word with empowerment and mental health support by 2025. Using a simple hero-only email with the CTA directing to a landing page full of information and mental health resources, this one really stood out.

There were some definite ‘don’ts’ that we came across too. A token one-liner followed by a link to a selection of socks for Mother’s Day. A free gift with purchase for IWD when the email promoting it has zero messaging or context about the occasion and its importance. These unfortunately do feel more like utilising the awareness day as a marketing opportunity rather than paying attention to its purpose. 

If brands wish to push products in their IWD emails then that’s okay, but we think there should be a balance between that and celebrating women, raising awareness and demonstrating their own actions.

There’s also a disappointing increase in femwashing, which is when companies imply that the consumption of their products is going to lead to gender equality or female empowerment, or that their products are somehow feminist. Fast fashion companies are often accused of this.

It’s great to see so many brands taking International Women’s Day seriously and getting it right; producing great content, inspiring initiatives and empowering messages. The fact that issues such as femwashing are being challenged more strongly than ever before might mean that the brands who missed the mark this year will be taking notes.

Watch this space.