Dove Cream Oil and the Oscars
According to Time and AdAge we’re moving into the world of UGC taking over the advertising and marketing activities of brands, it’s going to move onwards and upwards from the reviews and blog posts and board posts out into the world of selling the brand. But in reality, a full scale switch is unlikely to happen. Instead what we have is big brands dipping their toes in the water, soliciting ad ideas not for a single campaign but for one offs. The Superbowl is the obvious choice for many brands, big, one night a year, high coverage and just look at the PR they can get for letting their users take over the brand message for one day. But a major sporting event does not fit in with every brand’s DNA, so alternatives are needed.
Enter Dove and the Oscars. Dove are definitely one of the most creative brands when it comes to connecting with customers, with creating an emotional attachment between the product and users lives. But it’s interesting to see a team that came up with the Campaign for Real Beauty and the Evolution video being connected to an event that is so synonymous with hype and Hollywood make believe.
The entries have closed and they are in the judging process to select the final three for showcasing. The ads on the site are a mixture of uploaded video and the product assets provided in the online video editing functionality. They did their best to make the whole process as easy as possible so even if you have never touched an editing tool in your life there was still a chance you could enter using the tools they provided.
Working through the samples, they all seem to follow the rules for shower products. I’m hoping there’s some real gems in the final selection, taking the opportunity to juxtapose a brand that seems to do its best to be a real life driven brand with all the glitz and glamour of the ceremony.
This year we are going to see far more of these; some just jumping on the bandwagon and others making a real effort. I would love to see some of the ideas make a real impact to a brand’s marketing over and above the PR that arises from a competition like this. Whilst I am a strong fan of involving the user in marketing communications, opening up the relationship to be a dialogue and really listening to what is said out there, I’m not holding my breath for a UGC ad to fundamentally change the idea behind marketing. Especially as most of these competitions are constrained in various ways to work within a brand image.
To make a difference, the level of involvement has to go beyond the opportunity to make an ad. So I’m keeping my eyes out for the companies that are going to be that.
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POSTED IN: Advertisments, TV, User Generated Content, Video Content
1 opinion for Dove Cream Oil and the Oscars
Dove Hair Care Contest
Aug 8, 2007 at 9:28 am
[…] are repeating their ‘make a commercial’ effort that they rolled out previous with Dove Cream Oil and the Oscars. This time, it is for their Hair Care product, which tells me I’m 5 days away from beautiful […]