Case Dove

The Dove Self-Esteem Project aims to empower young people and help them strengthen a positive body image so that they can reach their full potential and enjoy life with confidence.

With this campaign, Dove wanted to provoke a discussion about the self-esteem of Finnish girls and the ways in which the self-esteem of young people can be positively influenced. The target group was girls as well as mothers of young people and other close adults.

The campaign was launched with a topical survey of the self-esteem of Finnish girls. The survey is a good starting point for the campaign as the results provide interesting tips for communication and planning of all aspects of the campaign.

The theme of self-esteem was to be addressed in a way that is natural to the target group and in their favourite channels. That’s why we decided to take the topic into the chatfiction series. Chatfiction is a great way to capture the attention of the young target audience. The impact on this audience is made with interesting content and a good story.

In reaching out to mothers and other close adults it was decided to make extensive use of magazines and advertorials to communicate interestingly and at the same time informatively about the ways in which adults can support young people’s self-esteem. In addition the adult target group also used the familiar narration of chatfiction on social media.

The campaign began with a survey that was focused on young people’s self-esteem. The survey was conducted at Demi’s Instagram channel and was answered by more than 2 000 young people in May 2019.

94 % of the respondents were girls, a quarter were around 11–14 years old and almost half were 15–17 years old.

The results announced on International Girls ’Day revealed among other things that 70 % of girls sometimes feel that they are not good anywhere. 83 % of respondents said that appearance has a big impact on their self-esteem and 79 % believed that girls get more feedback on their appearance than on their achievements.

The research material was widely used in the planning and implementation of other aspects of the campaign.

The role of magazine advertising was to create reach in the target groups of the campaign and to attract attention and discussion on an important topic in the right media environment.

Based on the results of the survey the advertorials of the spread were made with two different content points. One of the advertorials was targeted at young people and the other at their mothers. In addition to the results of the survey advertisers shared information about the Dove Self-Esteem project.

Advertorials were widely published in the A-lehdet media selection. Demi, Kotivinkki, Eeva, Unelmien Talo&Koti, Kauneus & Terveys, Voi hyvin and Trendi were selected with 84 % of their readers in the campaign's target group.

Chatfiction is a new kind of mobile-designed storytelling format in which the viewer follows the conversations of fictional characters on WhatsApp.

Three of the episodes of the second production season of the Inside by Demi series were carried out in commercial collaboration with Dove. The theme of self-awareness was written as an integral part of the story.

The series was released on Demi’s Instagram and YouTube channels. Demi's videos posted on YouTube were also lifted to Demi.fi’s recommended elements.

Chatfiction narration was also expanded for mothers of girls. The purpose of the video was to get mothers to think about what kind of conversations they are having with their daughters and how they could deepen those conversations in the future.

The video ad was distributed on Facebook and Instagram through the channels of the Kauneus & Terveys and Unelmien Talo&Koti brands. In addition Dove shared the video on social media.

Dove successfully sparked a debate about the girls’ self-esteem during the campaign. An important topic received attention from many medias that published the results of the self-esteem survey.

The campaign successfully reached its target audience. Advertorials in magazines, a chatfiction series for young people and a chatfiction video ad for mothers all together created a positive image of Dove.

Advertorials in Demi, Kotivinkki, Eeva, Unelmien Talo & Koti, Kauneus & Terveys, Voi hyvin and Trendi reached a total of almost one million readers (gross) and 687 000 individual readers (net).

Net magazine reach was 31 % of the target group and OTS 1,4. Advertorials stood out clearly from other advertising and were well-informed by respondents to the campaign survey.

Inside by Demi series garnered over a million views and 53 000 likes. Commercial content collaboration had a high attention value: 87 % of viewers drew attention to the fact that some episodes had been done with Dove. 64 % gave the series a commendable school grade of 9 or 10.

Chatfiction advertising played a different role in the series than magazine advertising. The campaign survey says it was considered entertaining and fun. Chatfiction stood out clearly from other advertising.

Chatfiction video ad garnered 22 526 views on Facebook and reached nearly 19 000 user accounts. On Instagram Stories the ad received 8 372 views. The positive image created by the video ad also helped to strengthen the level of discretion of the target group.

"For Dove it was important to learn more about the issues and challenges young people in Finland are struggling with related to body confidence and self-esteem. Low self-esteem and body confidence is an issue in most parts of the world, but to have the facts from the local market makes the communication more relevant, easier to relate to and grabs people’s attention. That is why the local study was important and the results made the foundation for our communication.

Dove and the Self-Esteem project wants to help young people improve their self-esteem and the aim of the campaign was to increase awareness of the material we offer and that it can be downloaded from the Dove webpage. The results clearly show that there is an interest for this topic and that it creates engagement, and as a result Dove can reach more people with our material", says Line Relling Printzell, Nordic Brand Manager, Dove.