The Strategy

Target audience: People who have their names mispronounced, and employers all over the UK that want to work for an inclusive environment in the workplace.   

Mispronunciation of names happens at workplaces every day. But it’s an invisible problem, and for those who aren’t subjected to it it’s hard to relate to the problem and the feelings it evokes.  

To change this, we needed to do two things:  

1. Make it visible.  

By turning the pronunciation of names from something verbal into something visual, we got the way to say names correctly right in front of people’s eyes.  

2. Make it personal.  

Every name holds a story. By having people share their stories, whether it’s about the origin of their name or the moments where they’ve had it mispronounced, we got people to understand how much of an issue this is, and that it’s more than “just saying a name right”. 

The Execution

The Fuh-Net-Ic filter included 500,000 names with different phonetic spellings, based on the country it originated from. Meaning a name with different pronunciations included different phonetic spellings that people could choose from, after listening to them through an audio function.  

We launched the campaign on the opening day of Race Equality Week and targeted community members with names that are seen as “hard to pronounce” by the general population and invited them to try The Fuh-Net-Ic filter.  

People immediately started to share the way to say their names, and the stories behind them. By centering the campaign around a striking visual and making it personalized, we got every single share to be part of a bigger picture.  

In addition to this, we worked with traditional PR by pitching interesting stories about people who’ve had their names mispronounced. 

BUSINESS OUTCOME

Over 55,000 people around the world shared stories about their origin, ancestors, their identity and exclusion, about changing yourself to fit in and not feeling respected.  

• Backed by 3500+ organisations in the UK, inc Asos and Adidas. 
• The campaign generated 1.7 billion earned impressions.  
• 10,000+ names added by users so far, making the tool more inclusive. 
• Wide spread of media coverage, including BBC, LadBible and LinkedIn News.  

What started as a filter to share the way to pronounce names, revealed thousands of stories about heritage, identity and pride. And proved that names are too important to mispronounce.