Dove Campaign Roundtable
- Dove Campaign Roundtable
Linda Scott:Good morning, everyone, and thanks once again for participating in this roundtable. The way I usually begin is to ask for everybody to go around and just sort of say their name and what their relationship has been to the campaign.
Daryl Fielding:I’m Daryl Fielding and I’m Business Partner at the advertising agency, Ogilvy, which created the campaign, and along with my colleagues was one of the team that developed the campaign in the very first instance.
Mel White:I’m Mel White, I’m a Global Brand Partner at Ogilvy. I worked with Unilever on Dove for many years, and was part of the team that developed the strategy and the thinking behind the new campaign.
Dennis Lewis:I’m Dennis Lewis; I’m a Creative Partner at Ogilvy and was Creative Director on the new campaign.
Alessandro Manfredi:I’m Alessandro Manfredi, now I’m Global BP for the Dove master-brand and I was part of the team that developed the campaign on behalf of the client.
Linda Scott:Can someone set the stage for how this campaign started: what the origin was, the beginning agenda was, or inspiration was?
Alessandro Manfredi:The brand was extremely successful when we started the campaign, and I’m talking about the period of the end of 2001, beginning of 2002. But we realized that the success was due to the love of consumers for the product, and that the relationship of the consumers with the brand was nonexistent, basically. There was a second problem that increasingly the brand was starting to look and feel different amongst the four biggest regions. So you had a different brand in Asia, you had a different brand in the US and in Europe. So the first step was to work towards a new vision for the brand, and the work that has been done by the team that was composed by part of the firm and part of the agency, was aimed at clarifying what the brand DNA is, understanding what has made the success of this brand, and making it more contemporary and refreshing. So it was not about revolutionizing the brand, but making the brand more relevant and contemporary. Also keeping an eye to the fact that the brand was moving from being a soap brand, as most of the business was in soap, and to start entering categories like face, like hair, that were really beauty care.
Dove “1950’s Cleansing Cream” spot.
So we wanted to become a beauty brand, but we wanted to become one with a very clear point of view. When we developed the brand vision, I think we identified different elements that made the brand, but I think there was one especially that stimulated, let’s say, excited everybody, and it was about the beauty philosophy. Basically, we had started this brand 55 years ago now, I think, in the US, with testimonials. We have very thorough protocol in creating testimonials, and basically the protocol is about making sure that they are real, they are authentic, and that women really talk about their experience with the product, that they really have tried the product. We put into the advertising the exact words, so we don’t screen anything. This has created some emotional connection with the brand in terms of people believing that this is an honest and authentic brand. And I think the fact of being honest and authentic came from this.
“Dove through History” spot, part 1.
