Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Dove Self Esteem Fund

by Rachel on November 23rd, 2007

I got a mail from one of the agencies involved in promoting the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and its latest incarnation with the Self-Esteem Fund, with some new developments, the Dove Reality Diaries. I have to admit I’m conflicted when reviewing this campaign. On the one hand I fully support the concept behind the Campaign for Real Beauty and the Self-Esteem fund and think that Dove are doing some superb things to promote a new way of looking at the beauty industry and to help a lot of people. On the other hand, this site reviews digital marketing and they are doing some things with the assets that drive me insane and I need to write about that. So, when reading this, please remember I love the campaign but loathe some of the executions behind it.

The overall campaign

The Good: You can’t argue with this idea

The Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) was established to raise the self-esteem of girls and young women to make them feel more beautiful and confident every day. The DSEF is part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a global effort designed to widen today’s stereotypical view of beauty. A global project, the Fund consists of a network of local country initiatives linked in strategy and direction by a global steering group. In each country, the DSEF supports a specific charitable organization to help foster self-esteem.

Dove Self Esteem Fund is committed to reaching 5 million young women by the end of 2010, the Dove Self-Esteem Fund invites you to play a role in supporting and promoting a wider definition of beauty.

They’ve hit on a key truth, they are rolling it out globally, they are activating it locally. They’ve set it up as a real charity with an advistory board and to which you can make a donation. The site is full of great information for women of all ages. Resources include quizes, activities, general advice and discussion boards to connect with peers - there’s a lot of really good content here. They have an image reviewer, where you can take a look at media images and see whether they have been retouched or not; this concept was being heavily discussed on breakfast news earlier in the week, associated with a Girl Guide Report into under-10s, self-esteem and body image. The latest video gives you a good indication of the number of images such girls see every day.

The Bad: Belonging to Unilever. The louder they shout about Dove, the more I think about Axe/Lynx. I’m getting more and more convinced that the two brands are not necessarily compatible in the one company. Here’s a other video taking a different view.

The Outreach

The good: Pretty good email, nothing much wrong with it compared to some of the really bad ones I see. They link to a comprehensive resource page, containing lots of images, links, videos and information. I request to get involved and promote and an invitation to get more involved. One of the best packs I’ve seen.

The bad: one minor quibble in the main press release in the pack is from 2006, talking about the ad being part of the Superbowl. Not sure that is relevant anymore; surely it would be better to give an overview of what they have done in the campaign over the last 21 months.

Dove Reality Diaries

The Good:I like the concept - following four teenagers through their lives and getting an insight to the pressures they face, with ongoing advice from Jessica Weiner. They’ve picked for very different gilrs from different backgrounds and locations, to show that esteem issues can affect all. The site is creatively lovely and has a lot of stuff on it, from the diaries, video input, feedback from the expert, comments from followers and others ways to interact, including live chats. There are a lot of quizes, a great way to pass over information in a way that does not feel like a ‘lecture’. (they link back to the main site) and the ability to ask the expert questions. There’s a weird little tool that allows you to doodle on the page and graffiti it, but as you can’t seem to save it, there’s no way of sharing. A lot of good stuff on the site..which leads me to the bad.

The Bad: This is the main bit that drives me insane. I can’t do anything with the content. It’s all in flash and they’ve not even written the flash so that you can link to site sections. The diaries and comments are all enclosed in the flash and I can’t share them or subscribe except via email or via a desktop widget. For this audience, email is not necessarily the right tool - RSS, Facebook and other social media sharing widgets would be far more effective to get people following the content and sharing it with friends, driving passive passalong. You can’t embed the videos on the site, you can’t really do anything. It is so annoying from a user perspective and dampens the ability of the content to be spread around. (This is the point where the agency comes round and tells me they have a million email subscriptions!). The same is true of the main site, almost everything is contained on the site, with little that you can share. (there are more downloads of information available there though).

So love the ideas, the concepts and the content. Hate many of the executions and strongly believe that chances are being missed to let the content be spread around.

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POSTED IN: Engaging the Customer, Influence Marketing, Marketing in General