For any outsider looking in, Asian Americans seem like a successful group of people that has successfully assimilated themselves in elite circles and opened doors to wealth and education. When many Americans think of Asians, they think of doctors, engineers, coders…or Crazy Rich Asians.

However, there are two sides to the Asian American experience. Behind closed doors, Asian professionals are still seen as ‘the other’, and many are still unwillingly typecast into ‘model minority’ roles and behaviors. 30% of AAPI professionals report workplace discrimination, but because of blanket stereotypes surrounding their wealth and success, most people of other races say discrimination against Asians is non-existent.

In 2021, in the face of Asian hate, we launched a pro-bono campaign in partnership with Ascend that set out to expose the model minority myth, highlight the Other Side of the AAPI experience, and to issue a call for systemic change.

This campaign was done as a pro bono exercise without paid media, which meant we had to rely on a laser-focused channel strategy to earn engagement through organic and donated media. To do this, we presented a groundbreaking approach on LinkedIn that shattered norms around polished profiles and self-promotion, and hacked emerging platform behavior to make our cause impossible to ignore.

We recognized that LinkedIn behavior reflected a similar Other Side experience, where most only highlight the glossy version of their professional lives. However, we also noticed more vulnerable conversations around mental wellbeing emerging on the platform, and decided to ride this wave to kickstart our movement.

Knowing the community’s discomfort with sticking out and ‘losing face’, we asked 20 AAPI leaders to lead the way by participating in a LinkedIn profile hack. Profile headlines signaling power were changed to their Other Side experience, such as “Least Likely to Be Promoted to C-Suite”, and profile updates normally signaling achievements were replaced by posts highlighting their Other Side story.

We also partnered with Fortune, the leading list directory magazine (40 under 40, etc.) to publish our own “Other Side list” and provided an audio experience using 360 directional audio to invite listeners to connect with Other Side stories in a more immersive way.

We brought attention to the issue at a mass scale…

● 88MM OOH impressions across 5 major cities (NY, Chicago, SF, LA, Washington D.C.)

● Over 114MM total impressions across 5 major cities

● 11,925 LinkedIn reactions on Storyteller posts

● +181% MoM increase in LinkedIn reactions on Ascend page prompted engagement and inspired action…

● 2:25 average time spent on The Other Side website

● 13 LinkedIn headline changes from our Storytellers drove –

● 1,223 comments on their posts

● +132% MoM in Ascend LinkedIn page shares

● +181% MOM increase in LinkedIn reactions on Ascend LinkedIn page

● 5 minute average time spent with Sound of the Other Side demonstrating engagement with audio

experience Won new allies for our mission…

● 10,326 new unique visitors to the Ascend site during the month of launch, making up 84% of site

traffic

● +525% increase to ascend site traffic

Our brand purpose is to drive workplace impact by elevating AAPI business leaders and empowering them to become catalysts for change.

The brand purpose centered our focus throughout to embolden people to speak up for themselves. Early on, we questioned the approach of asking the AAPI community to step up, instead of putting the onus on Corporate America to change, but we decided to stay true to our purpose of ‘empowering [the community] to become catalysts for change’.

The campaign was deliberately designed to give people safe spaces to share their plight. The audio experience was recorded in photo booths and virtually, so that people could share their uninhibited thoughts. The headline hack was also launched with a wave of candid participation from the most influential leaders who had the most to lose; this was designed to set an example for other business leaders to also step up without fear.

Ascend - The Other Side

CREDITS

Michelle Tang

Tim Konn

Gold partners