Clever Creative: A Solid Ad

In 1987, the stock market crashed, leaving The Dow with $500 billion in loss to its value. A few years later, as the country was still recovering, an artist named Arturo Di Modica decided to create a piece of art and leave it in Bowling Green Park, practically the doorstep of Wall Street. It was a charging bull standing at 11 feet tall and meant to symbolize aggressive financial optimism and prosperity. Now, 28 years later, another statue has appeared in Bowling Green Park, only this one is much smaller, and has a bigger message.

Today’s “Clever Creative” is a guerrilla marketing effort from McCann New York and their client State Street Global Advisors called “The Fearless Girl,” and it was created by fine bronze sculpture Kristen Visbal. It comes just in time for International Women’s Day and is being used to symbolize the power of women, and more specifically women in top positions in companies. This fearless girl faces off with the infamous “Charging Bull,” representing the thousands of working women who must face adversities in the workplace head-on. Check out how this solid ad was created:

Why our GEMites liked this Clever Creative:

The obvious reason we love this guerrilla marketing effort is because of its powerful message. It sheds a light on women’s roles (or lack-there-of) in leadership positions in companies. In one study done by MSCI, one in four of the companies in the Russell 3000 don’t even have one woman on their board and nearly 60% of boards are less than 15% women. They also found that “Companies in the MSCI World Index with strong female leadership generated a Return on Equity of 10.1% per year versus 7.4% for those without.” Staggering facts like that were the inspiration for this piece, and the hope is that “The Fearless Girl” will encourage women everywhere to be as strong as she is. Just as the bull was a symbol for financial optimism, “The Fearless Girl” can serve as a symbol of optimism for more women in leadership roles.

We also love the perfect timing of these efforts as they occurred just one day before International Women’s Day. On top of that, they installed the piece in the middle of the night, which is a nod to the way the original “Charging Bull” was installed. Finally, perhaps the best part of this guerrilla marketing campaign, McCann is trying to get the statue to become a permanent art piece, meaning that the message, and companies involved, will live in infamy just as Arturo Di Modica has.

Why our fellow creatives should like this:

Guerrilla marketing is not a new concept, but it isn’t always effective. Only the ones that have a crowd-capturing ability are the ones that create major buzz and get the kind of reach and awareness that the company originally intended, which is exactly what this stunt by McCann and SSGA did. It’s been one day since the statue appeared, and you can’t Google International Women’s Day or Wall Street without getting news stories about “The Fearless Girl.”

We think the mass amount of coverage this guerrilla marketing effort has gained in just one day is one reason our fellow creatives should like it. McCann New York created a powerful and solid campaign that effectively conveyed a message from their client, while creating tons of free press. It also caused all us GEMites and thousands of people to research SSGA and who they are. The reporting on this stunt was far-reaching and equal to the kind of advertising you’d usually have to pay millions for, but they got most of it for free, which is pretty admirable.

Let us know what you think, and be on the lookout for next week’s installment of Clever Creative!

If you’re looking for some clever creative of your own, feel free to contact us.

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• Creativity
• Art
• Clever Creative
• Advertising
• Guerrilla Marketing
• International Women's Day