The Zalando ”Dress code: Freedom” campaign celebrated Pride and won gold in SABRE Awards EMEA 2022, and got shortlisted at this year’s Gerety Awards. In the campaign Finnish Pride pioneers wore outfits they dreamed to wear back when dressing freely was a taboo.
For too many decades people in minority groups were shunned, called names, and criminalised. That’s why Zalando gave Pride pioneers a platform and shined spotlight on Finland’s LGBT+ activists during Pride 2021.
The stars of Zalando’s “Dress code: Freedom” campaign were human rights activists who fought for the rights of LGBT+ people at a time, when they could not fully express themselves and wear what wanted. Zalando gave them the opportunity to dress like they wanted to dress decades ago. The oldest face featured in the campaign was over 80 years old, the youngest over 60 years old, says Annu Terho, SEK’s Creative Director.
About 50 years ago in Finland, homosexuality was struck off from the criminal code. Forty years ago, homosexuality was removed from the classification of diseases. And over 30 years ago the first Finnish LGBT+ advocacy groups, Helsinki Seta and the Pride community, were founded. As recent as eleven years ago cross-dressing was removed from the list of diseases in Finland.
The campaign won gold in the 2022 SABRE Awards EMEA in the Nordics category. In addition to this, it gained victories from Finnish awards, such as Grand One 2022 and Vuoden Huiput, while still waiting for the end results of Gerety Awards. The Dress Code: Freedom also got shortlisted on Effie Finland and Voitto.
The campaign achieved record results for Zalando in all digital marketing target metrics:
* potential 7,9 M PR impressions.
* Content from the other influencers in the campaign was viewed about 800,000 times.
* Zalando’s own “Brand Heat index” was the best ever for a campaign in Finland.
* Engagement was more than double compared to the Zalando summer campaign.
* The ratio of clicks to impressions was more than threefold compared to the 2020 Pride campaign.
There is a campaign video ([ Ссылка ]) and 4 individual profiles:
* Axu: [ Ссылка ]
* Tiina: [ Ссылка ]
* Juha: [ Ссылка ]
* Lars: [ Ссылка ]
Credits
Creative Agency, design & execution: SEK
Video & Photo production: Simelius simelius
Influencer Collaborations: Miltton
