2024 Silver B2B

Agency: Edelman

Client: Unilever Dove

Entry Title: Code My Crown

Executive Summary

Dove believes every person should able to see their beauty represented in the world around them, and that beauty should be a source of confidence not anxiety. The same should be true in the virtual world - but it isn’t.

Strategy

Dove’s research found 85% of Black gamers feel underrepresented in video games, specifically when it comes to the depiction of their hair textures. This was confirmed in further qualitative research with game developers. In an increasingly digital world, this was not a niche problem: 48% of game players identify as female, and 29% of game players are people of colour. Additionally, 87% of Gen Z say they play games: a critical growth audience for Dove.

The underrepresentation of Black hair textures and styles in gaming presented an opportunity for Dove to bring fresh, contemporary relevance to its mission for all women.

Creativity

The campaign team worked with Open Source Afro Hair Library, and enlisted a team of Black 3D artists, animators, programmers, and academics to develop 15 original hair sculpts that laid the foundation for hundreds of virtual styles. Each sculpt came with step-by-step instructions, 360-degree photo mapping, and cultural insight so that any developer can better model and represent textured hair and styles in the digital world.

Gamers saw their identities more authentically mirrored in their avatars, affirming self-perception and confidence. Celebrity natural hair stylists helped develop a 200-page guide to amplify the campaign. It was brought to life with a website, film, social and influencer content; and engagement with major players in the gaming industry - Ubisoft , Undead Labs and Activision - to incorporate the guide into their game development and drive employee training.

Results

The gaming company tie-up gave a total reach of 34,000 employees serving 229 million gamers globally.

Other key metrics included:

• 1.81 billion+ earned impressions
• 100% positive/neutral sentiment across earned and organic conversations
• 1,400 mentions and 9,700 engagements across social channels
• Engagement rate of 22.9%, outperforming the benchmark of 4.3% by 432%

The work sparked cultural relevance by solving a real problem for a community. 81% of Black gamers said the campaign made them feel more connected with Dove; 37% of Black gamers and 37% in the Black community said Dove is the only brand they would consider buying after seeing the initiative.

The Team

Edelman - Judy John, Global CCO - Mattias Ronge, EMEA CCO -Stefan Ronge, EMEA CCO - Jamie George Cordwell, Global ECD - John Wilds, Associate Creative Director, Copy - Thiago Campos, Associate Creative Director, Art Direction - Izzi Mordini, Designer - Albert Botelho, Senior Art Director - Virginia Landau, Senior Director, Global Client Lead for Unilever - Ashlie White, SVP Multicultural - Jasmine Smith, VP Client Director - Liz Harris, Associate Client Director - Katie Stratakis, Global Client Director - Anna Cantley, Associate Client Director - Melle Hock, CSO (USA) and Global Strategy Director Lead for Unilever - Alex Sullivan, Strategy Director - Lucie Hackman, Head of Production - Georgina Shann, SVP, DxI - Ashley Jamieson, Project Manager

Freelance - Sajhmori Dunn, 3D Artist - Malika Mutombo, 3D Artist - H.D. Harris, 3D Artist - Diandra Rose, 3D Artist - Adesayo (Ade) Adeoye, 3D Artist - Chrissy Powell, 3D Artist

Open Source Afro Hair Library - A.M. Darke, Creative Consultant & Founder

Curl Queen by Naivasha Intl - Nai'Vasha Grace, Celebrity Stylist

Tallgran - Isaac Olander, 3D Artist