2023 Bronze Integrated

Agency: Ogilvy UK

Client: DOVE

Entry Title: Toxic Influence

Executive Summary

Since the Campaign for Real Beauty of 2004, Dove has been a shining example of purposeful marketing, using its platform to promote women’s self-esteem. But by 2021, other brands were encroaching on the positioning, new threats to girl’s self-esteem were emerging on social media and purpose marketing was coming under scrutiny.

Strategy

The objective was to continue to take an ‘actionist’ stance to detoxify beauty by undermining threats to self-esteem and raising awareness of the Dove Self-Esteem Project, building brand equity and driving growth in the process.

Research revealed new threats from toxic beauty advice promoted by influencers. Teens were developing parasocial relationships: one person extends emotional energy, while the influencer stays blissfully unaware. This led to an imbalance with 39% of girls trusting influencers more than their parents.

This blind spot was damaging girl's self-esteem. The new campaign would be the first to call out toxic influencers, exposing wrong-doing and helping girls understand how to respond.

Creativity

The creative approach needed to make the impact of insidious influencers immediate to parents. Behind some of the more harmless and inviting posts, girls were being advised to file down their teeth down, or to use baby Botox - advice no mother would give her daughter.

This inspired the creative hook: putting the advice of toxic influencers into the mouths of mothers so they could see just how toxic and dangerous it was.

The campaign launched with a four-minute hero film on social media. Real girls and their mothers were invited to a venue where, using deepfake technology, they were shown footage of the mother giving toxic beauty advice taken from her daughter's feed, starting a conversation between mum and daughter. Expert support was provided, facilitating a positive discussion.

Consumers were also directed towards educational resources including #DetoxYourFeed DSEP video guides.

Results

The campaign made an impact in culture and started a new conversation about the impact of toxic influencers on young girls.

Key brand associations and Dove’s Kantar Brand Power score were successfully increased. There was also a correlative increase in sales compared to the equivalent period of the previous year, indicating success could be attributed to the impact of the campaign.

Contributors

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