MilkPEP’s Yin Woon Rani on championing women marathoners

Ad Age is marking Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor Soyoung Kang turns the spotlight to Yin Woon Rani, CEO of MilkPEP, a milk industry marketing and education group.

Here, Yin shares her thoughts on how the “26.2” initiative, part of the “Gonna Need Milk” campaign, aims to rewrite the rules of sports sponsorship.

Growing up in Singapore, I was conditioned to be a “rule-follower.” However, since immigrating to the U.S., my career has been a lifelong lesson of unlearning this conditioning and stripping away the conventional rules that were so heavily ingrained.

As a female AAPI creative within the CPG marketing industry, I was thrown into a system that I was not set up to succeed within. But over time I realized that by embracing my own unique perspective—instead of blending in—I could thrive. There is so much power in knowing who you are and the value you bring to the table. You become fearless. And I want to empower others to feel the same.

With every step up the corporate ladder, I made it a priority to elevate underrepresented communities along the way. My most recent work with MilkPEP feels like a culmination of my career’s work—both personally and professionally. I get to represent a challenger industry in my fight to reclaim milk’s mojo and make a powerful stance for women of all ages, abilities, race and experience—a push to put women in the spotlight when they have, for so long, been in the shadows.

As a part of our performance-driven “Gonna Need Milk” campaign, we recently launched our “26.2” initiative, a commitment to sponsor any woman running or aiming to run a marathon in the U.S. This campaign is important to me, because even though a marathon is the same distance for anyone running, women often face significant disparities in terms of sponsorship, support and visibility. With this program, we are proud to offer much-needed support to women runners across the country and empower the next generation of female runners through our partnership with Girls on the Run. We’re working with real female marathoners and elevating their stories into the spotlight—in our OOH, our social and everything in between. All you have to do is sign up for #TeamMilk on gonnaneedmilk.com to receive support.

We know that running isn’t the only sport where women are underrepresented and underpaid—it’s pervasive. In fact, only 5% of all sports media coverage goes to women. This is why we took our commitment one step further, promising to dedicate 100% of all campaign coverage and content to women. Who shows up in our newsfeeds and on our screens impacts how we view women in sports. I’m proud our work is taking a stand and a step in the right direction for gender equity in sport. 

This is the kind of work that makes me proud to be a CEO. We are building a community of strong, empowered women.

My Singapore roots also instilled a deep respect for community, and I understand the power of building a diverse support system. I credit so much of my success to listening to and learning from these diverse perspectives, which is why I’m so proud to be involved in key associations like 108AMAM (Asian Marketers And More), BRIDGE, DFA’s Diversity Coalition and Women in Dairy. I encourage anyone interested in learning from these diverse, talented communities to join or reach out. 

To young AAPI creatives: Own your unique perspective and embrace your background. You’ll find your voice, your passion—and then listen to it. Let that inner voice guide you and create the work that feeds it. Your best work will follow.