Inspiring top-level executive women

Posted on by Linnie Rawlinson

Challenge: To build a global, professional conversation that engages and inspires the world’s most senior women

CNN’s “Leading Women” project, aimed at executive female leaders, wanted to connect with its audience and build a worldwide conversation, partnering with them, on the opportunities for and achievements of women in the workplace.

We devised a strategy to target highly networked individuals and hot topics on social media to complement the on-air coverage. These key influencers contributed to the site and amplified CNN’s coverage to their social followers.

The team ran social storytelling initiatives in partnership with LinkedIn groups, on Twitter and on Facebook, including a live broadcast with astronaut Karen Nyberg from the International Space Station. These initiatives were designed to celebrate women’s professional achievements and inspire others to succeed.

The biggest, centred on International Women’s Day, asked women around the world to nominate their favourite inspiring quotes from women. We then asked designers around the world to illustrate the quotes, via Behance, Dezeen and other design communities and networks. This was accompanied by a big PR and social push across CNN’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

The illustrations were promoted on Pinterest and shared widely on social media and in the press.

35 illustrated quotes were then selected and printed as postcard books, and distributed to the designers, partners and sponsors of the initiative to thank them for taking part.

Linnie Rawlinson was CNN International’s Executive Producer for Specials and Features. With teams in London and Hong Kong, she led CNN’s international features team, delivering engaging, shareable content to millions of users each day that generated millions of dollars in advertising revenue each year.

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