Case study: Dove Self-Esteem Fund 2006

Campaign brief The focus of the campaign was to invite women in Canada to become involved in Doves mission to foster positive self-esteem in the lives of young girls. The campaign was targeted at mums, mentors and educators as well as any other relevant agencies to reach as many women as possible with Doves message of Real Beauty. The ultimate goal was to effect change positively in the lives of 70,000 Canadian girls. The specific online media objective was to provoke mothers to think about their daughters self-esteem and inspire them to get involved in using the Dove Self-Esteem Fund resources and tools found on campaignforrealbeauty.ca. Campaign concept Two films were developed by Ogilvy & Mather, Canada to encourage attendance at Dove Self-Esteem Workshops and to engage with the Campaign for real beauty site. The first, Daughters, featured daughters talking about the pressures on young girls to be pretty and thin, and the overemphasis on external appearances. The film also featured mums talking about their empathy for their daughters struggling with these pressures. The films message was Things wont change until we change them. The second film was Evolution. This featured a young, pretty girl in front of a mirror whose image is modellized by make-up artists, hairdressers, etc and then completely airbrushed so that the end result is completely different from the original shot of the girl. The core message of this film was No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted. Campaign strategy The online media strategy was to develop a multi-layer online campaign that would: 1. Generate awareness of the Dove Self-Esteem tools and resources. 2. Launch a teaser one-minute film. A 15-second viral film trailer was streamed on mass and targeted womens websites in Canada. The trailers exposed the need for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and drove traffic to the Campaign for real beauty site to view the complete film. 3. Develop a series of customized e-newsletters that were targeted at mothers and teachers to introduce Dove Self-Esteem Fund tools and resources. Two viral films were produced, Daughters and Evolution, with the aim of capturing attention and driving traffic to the Campaignforrealbeauty.ca website and encouraging viewers to sign up to the Real Beauty workshops to be held at 15 locations in Canada.

The campaign: In September 2006 the Daughters video was posted on YouTube, and the viral version of the video was launched along with an e-mail and online banners campaign. The Evolution video was posted on YouTube in October 2006, and again this was followed by the launch of the viral version of Evolution, the Evolution e-mail campaign and online banners. Results: During the fourth quarter of 2006 the average daily visits to the Campaign For Real Beauty site grew from 1,378 to 16,785, an increase of 1,118 per cent. Results from the Daughters e-mail campaign:
220,942 e-mails delivered; 72,070 e-mails opened (33 per cent); 30,749 e-mails clicked (13 per cent).

Results from the Evolution e-mail campaign:

224,174 e-mails delivered; 75,055 e-mails opened (33 per cent); 25,475 e-mails clicked (11 per cent).

The Evolution film had compelling mass appeal online in its ideas and creative, while Daughters was more targeted in its appeal to mothers and mentors:
Evolution video downloads: 115,212; Daughters video downloads: 32,818; Evolution: Tell-a-Friend: 12,228; Daughters: Tell-a-Friend: 2,992.

Online media key findings: English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians responded differently to the creative messages. The English-speaking Canadians responded more to the Evolution message, while the French-speaking Canadians responded more to Daughters. There was a difference in the performance of different online advertising units: large Big Boxtype ads (sizeable ads appearing in the actual content of a web page) outperformed Leaderboard ads (large horizontal banners across the top of a web page). Consequently PHD, the agency responsible, shifted its focus from Leaderboard to Big Box format. Newsletter results were higher from niche sites, highlighting the higher degree of trust in niche sites and the greater interactivity by their visitors. Weekly campaign results enabled the campaign to be optimized effectively and adapted where necessary. The campaign had such an immediate and strong impact that it has been extended globally.