DOVE- “REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES”

Dove is a brand having its origins from U.S., post-World War 2 era. It was initially called a beauty bar having the claim that it would not dry out the skin like other soaps, in other words a moisturizing beauty bar. Dove started its advertising campaign with the message that the bar won’t dry your skin like other soaps simply because it contained cleansing cream. This big idea was projected by Dove over the next few years through various advertising campaigns till the year 2000 when Dove was to become a master brand, which meant it was to enter the personal care category with products beyond its existing beauty bar, such as hair care products, deodorants, facial cleansers etc. In 2004 the brand team introduced a revolutionary campaign which set the brand apart from its competition. The Big Idea now being “Real Beauty.” It was with this campaign that they broke the stereotype of how women are judged based on their looks and emphasised more on women’s real beauty. This campaign achieved most of its fame due to the use of women whose appearance was outside that of the norm. Over the years the “Real Beauty” campaign used traditional advertising and later on Digital advertising over social media by creating videos showing women expressing their real beauty.

In 2013 Dove shifted its focus from tackling stereotypes to a new enemy namely women’s insecurities regarding feeling beautiful. To overcome this Dove, yet again, executed another brilliant big idea “Real Beauty Sketches.” This was one of the most talked about campaigns till date. The idea was to engage women who put themselves down, in terms of beauty, to re-ignite the brand and in the end drive value sales by re-enforcing Dove’s emotional relevance to women.

The campaign was simple, it wanted to show women that they are a lot more beautiful than what they project themselves to be. It confronted women’s self-image and sought out to question and discover their own real beauty. This campaign helped Dove differentiate itself further and helpe d the brand attain a significant advantage by redefining attributes. Dove effectively connect emotionally with the consumers. It went beyond just the functional benefits of a product, in fact it did not show or talk about the product even once in its collateral. It projected itself as a brand that truly knew the real world problem that women were facing and helped morally boost their esteem. Dove, through its YouTube and social media channels also provided a platform for women to express themselves and their feelings which resulted in a significant increase in engagement and membership of their digital pages.

Dove managed to hit the “Sweet Spot” and the video associated with the campaign became the most watched online film with over 114 million views (Stampler, 2013) and was shared over 3.74 million times making it the third most shared video (Stampler, 2013). The campaign initially was rolled out in 4 countries (U.S., Canada, Brazil and Australia) and upon its success was spread to 110 countries in 25 different languages. The campaign also got incredible PR coverage and managed to attain 4 billion blogger media impressions. Due to the immense success of the campaign it was awarded the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’s highest honour, the Titanium Grand Prix and also won an Integrated Gold Lion. Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk (3 minute video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE (6 minute video) Bibliography Dove. (n.d.). The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Retrieved from Dove: http://www.dove.us/Social -

Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx

Dove:real Beauty Sketches. (2014). Retrieved from WARC:

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Reed, L. C. (2015, Feburary 9). real Beauty Brings real Results for Dove's Marketing Campaign. Retrieved from Ohio

University Strategic social media : http://oustrategicsocialmedia.com/2015/02/09/real-beauty-brings-

real-results-for-doves-marketing-campaign/

Stampler, L. (2013, May 22). How Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' became the most viral video ad of all time.

Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-doves-real-beauty-sketches-

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