Insight
Dove has always listened to women, based on the findings of the study 'The Truth About Beauty: A Global Report', Dove launched the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign resulted in the need for a broader definition of Beauty. The study showed that the assumptions and definitions of beauty were limited and unattainable.
One of the conclusions was that only 4% of women around the world – according to the current definitions – (felt that they) can be described as Beautiful. Dove has used various communication channels to combat these unrealistic stereotypes of beauty and invited women to debate it.
The Dove Movement for Self-Esteem mission is to encourage all women and girls to develop a positive relationship with their beauty, helping to raise their self-esteem and thereby enabling them to realise their full potential.
In México 65% of the children declare being bullying victims because of their appearance, 89% confesses that having a good perception of themselves protects them from bullying, so self-esteem should be a matter of concern as it is key to defend against bullying.
To bring to life this initiative Dove created educational programmes and activities to inspire and motivate girls to strengthen their self-esteem, inviting them to join the brand and making the vision of a healthier perception of beauty a reality.
The challenge for Mexico’s Dove Foundation was to increase download rates of educational programmes and generate video views, and with this, contribute to make them aware of the truth about beauty.
Strategy
Mums don’t know what to do when their daughters stop doing things they like because of their physical appearance. So parents should understand how to deal with this situation and be there for their daughters.
The concept that only a few women consider themselves beautiful passed through generations; girls are growing up with this thought, and they learn to deal with this wrong idea of what is considered as beauty. This new generation of women, with high ambitions in life, has the same confidence problems with their physical appearance.
Dove, through digital programmes, want to motivate mothers so they could pass on better and healthier values to their daughters, to develop a positive relation with beauty, such as confidence, and to be strong enough to be proud of their own unique beauty, and understand that beauty is a source of a healthy self-esteem, not anxiety.
The first place where women seek for information, and share mum-daughter experiences is the internet, so, focus all the effort in it to be part of this journey.
The communication was divided into two videos:
The first video reflected the main emotional barriers that women face since their childhood, and how these have caused them several self-esteem problems. It also points out that due to these barriers women cannot enjoy their life to the fullest: they hold back because they are too worried about not being beautiful enough.
The second video encouraged mothers to face these problems together with their daughters, having the support from Dove. The brand becomes the ambassador of the change in the mindset of the new generation of women.
Through this videos Dove inspired women to participate in the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem by download the complete programme from the brand web page.
Execution
As the main element of the execution, Dove Self Esteem Project brought out to the target the second stage of the Real Beauty Sketches campaign, but this time introducing the brand’s social mission.
Having in mind that the campaign message was very emotional, Initiative launched the first video as a teaser, with a First Watch format, creating a user base. After that, it applied retargeting in YouTube to get new viewers, using true view ads. Subsequently, on the eve of the International Women’s Day, the agency launched the second video, which had a strong call to action focused on the mothers, directing them to the website where they could download different self-esteem guides depending on their daughters age.
As an innovation, Dove was the first brand in Mexico to use a mobile masthead in YouTube. It also activated the Feature Channel and a call to action overlay with in-video annotations to assure the download. It also amplified the campaign’s message in Facebook and YouTube. The Facebook campaign comprised of two video posts and six photo posts designed to deliver the message to the women so they could share their thoughts and amplify the reach of the campaign.
To extend the reach, Initiative delivered the message in mass reach sites and incorporated the long tail sites of Google Display Network. As a PR amplifier it had three advertorials in the three biggest portals in the country, talking about the Dove’s Self-esteem project.
Results
With the digital campaign, Dove achieved over 26,000 downloaded self-esteem guides in three months within the website, maintaining women engaged until the end of the journey.
The videos generated more than 3.7 million views (Brand Channel). Average view rate of 81% of the total duration of the video (vs. 45% Dove Sketches), which meant over 3.3 million minutes spent with the brand. And 11% of completion rate (vs. 6% Dove Sketches).
As a result of the mix (mobile masthead and call to action overlay formats), the agency delivered to the brand channel 770 new subscribers in just one day, (35% more than the brand channel had generated with other activities in the year).
Facebook: +40,000 likes for the fan page and more than 874,000 video plays. In terms of social interactions, media efforts generated over 175,000 post likes, 30,000 shares and more than 3,000 comments. (+135% on earned media vs. budget spent in this platform).
As a result of the campaign, brand attributes such as: Support Causes that are important to me and Inspire women to feel good about themselves increase 5 bps (vs. PP), and, support girls’ self-esteem programs increase 13 bps (vs. PP).