Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” Campaign
In April 2013, Unilever, with its ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Brazil, came out with Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign to empower women about how they look. The campaign was a short film featuring an FBI-trained sketch artist Gil Zamora. He was shown sketching two portraits of women based on the description given by them and on how they were perceived by strangers. Neither did the artist himself look at the appearance of the women, nor were the women aware of the social experiment.
The portraits were then placed side-by-side, and notable differences were found between them. The portrait based on the stranger’s description was more attractive than the portrait based on self-description. The message that the campaign aimed to convey was “You are more beautiful than you think.” Below is the video of Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign:
The video was viewed more than114 million times(Links to an external site.)in the first month itself and was uploaded in 25 languages to 33 of the Dove's YouTube channels to reach consumers in over 110 countries.
According toVisible Measures(Links to an external site.), the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video was the most watched Internet video of 2013. There was a tremendous increase in its YouTube subscribers and Twitter and Facebook followers. The video not only went global and viral but also won19 Lions(Links to an external site.)including a Titanium Grand Prix.
The campaign didn’t target Dove’s products but instead focused on changing a woman’s perception of how she sees herself, also changing the way how Dove is viewed as a company. It is said that “Woman aged between 18-34 aretwice as likely to think(Links to an external site.)highly of a brand that made an empowering ad and nearly 80% more likely to like, share, comment, and subscribe after watching one.” Through the video, Dove wanted to make women realize that they are overly-critical of themselves to make them feel better about their appearance.
Key Takeaways
Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign proves thatmarketing your company doesn’t only include promoting your products and services. Instead, consumers get attracted towards a brand that references its culture. Buyers come across ads for various products and services. Thus, putting a social message across them becomes compelling.
The campaignbecame viral because it could connect to the audience emotionally. People could relate to the concept of the video. The idea was original, and the content was enticing without pushing the products. The ad encouraged social conversation and sensitivity around the beauty of a woman. It empowered women, evoking feelings of warmth, joy, and confidence. Empowerment is a powerful tool, which can enhance the brand image of your company. So build an uplifting relationship with your audience.
When you start your marketing campaign, it is crucial to create the best possible content to differentiate your brand. Promotion should be your next step. For promoting the brand effectively, Dove had strong social media strategies, which even lead to celebrities and other brands joining the conversation and sharing the video with others. Shareability is a huge factor for making your campaign a success.Involving customers in your campaign and providing them a platform for discussion is an invaluable wayto develop customer relationship.
When imparting your brand message, addressing your audience directly byusing the second-person term “you”ensures a personal touch. By saying “You are more beautiful than you think,” Dove could connect to the audience and show that it cares for each of them. The impact of the campaign was that while buying Dove’s products, people thought they are supporting a social cause.
Dove monitored the campaign in real-time, responded to conversations andoptimized its activities for better engagement and market penetration, ensuring the video was seen by the right people. It is crucial for you to track the results of your campaign. By using the technology you too candeliveranomni-channelcustomerexperience(Links to an external site.). Analytics will give you in-depth insights intoyour customers and capture their buying behavior.
Marketers aim to spread the word about their brand to a wide audience, and they often do this by trying to make their content go viral. Viral marketing is a technique, which marketers use intentionally to spread their message quickly. Just like a biological virus, a viral marketing campaign spreads from one person to another, resulting in a large number of views, substantial amount of social shares and remarkable brand awareness.
A viralmarketing campaign(Links to an external site.)should be able to tap into the emotions of the users, especially positive ones like joy and awe.
Find a marketing campaign that appeals to you and also went viral. The fact is, very few people know what goes into making a viral marketing campaign successful until it starts to spread. There are, however, some brands, who have understood what makes the audience tick. In fact, there are some consistent elements in such campaigns, which brands can follow.
Summarize the campaign, include a link or images of the viral campaign and address the following:
- What factors made the campaign unique and appealing?
- Who was the initial target audience? Were there any celebrities or influencers that helped make the campaign go viral? Who?
- What emotions did the campaign appeal to?
- Is there information available linking the campaign to an increase in sales or business?
- Are there any similarities in this campaign and the Dove campaign? Review the Key Takeaways (listed above).
- Why do you believe this campaign was so successful?