Wall Street pedestrians may have noticed Wednesday a new bronze statue of a small girl with her hands on her hips, staring down the famous charging Wall Street bull. For now, the groups behind it have a permit to keep the "Fearless Girl" installed for a week, but are in conversations to extend the permit to a month.
The piece was placed there on the eve of International Women's Day for one week by McCann NY, one of the largest advertising agencies in the country, and its client State Street Global Advisors, a $2.5 trillion investment company. A plaque next to the statue reads "Know the power of women in leadership. She makes a difference."
Why it matters: This is a great example of how place-based messaging can be very effective. The copper statue has so far has received ample earned media (Reuters, AdWeek, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Huffington Post) and the hashtag #fearlessgirl has reached an estimate of approximately a quarter million people in less than one day, according to TweetReach. The NYC Department of Transportation estimates over 20,000 people walk on Wall Street, presumably McCann and SSGA's target audience, during rush hour each day.
