The past few years, Dove has hosted a "Sleepover for Self-Esteem" on a particular night of the year in which mom's were encouraged to host sleepovers for their daughters and their friends. The event has grown in popularity and scope each year.
Image from blog.canadianparents.com
The purpose of the annual sleepover, according to Dove, is to get young girls talking about self-esteem issues in a fun and comfortable environment. This past year, the W network and YTV even got involved, airing special programming for the event (with the Dove logo plastered all over it).
A special Dove website promoting the event suggests self-esteem building activities, party themes, and snack ideas. It also offers advice to mom's hosting the event (such as instituting a "No Put Down Zone") and tips for encouraging discussion about self-esteem issues.
Invitations could be downloaded from the website, free music could be downloaded by participants, and special pajama pants were given out with the purchase of Dove products.
News of the event spread quickly, as it seemed to stem naturally from Dove's extremely successful "Campaign for Real Beauty".
However, the event really did not occur spontaneously - it has been staged. And why would Dove go to all that work of developing the event, crafting its interactive website, and partnering with television networks?
Because it's great, cheap publicity for Dove. Even though it has no real merit, it gets media coverage. And the Dove brand shines like a beacon of hope for all girls and women with self-esteem and body issues.
Oh yeah, and they sell more product. The pseudo-event has been extremely popular for Dove. They reported that thousands of sleepovers took place across Canada at the 2009 event. And most of us have heard about it. Which is really all that matters because familiarity and positive brand image sells products!
So congratulations Dove. While women think you're campaigning for them, they end up campaigning for you because you campaign for them. Pretty clever.
Dove stands head-and-shoulders above other soap brands (haha! OK, maybe only funny to me!) when it comes to PR; between campaigns like this one and their excellent "real beauty" campaign, they clearly know how to engage their audience.
ReplyDeleteI love the post!
ReplyDeleteMy dad works for Unilever Canada - the company that makes and markets Dove soap - and there was so much production behind this campaign. I remember my dad showing me the ads and clothing options, and I was really impressed right from the beginning.
I think that Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" is also a great concept. The campaign started getting TONS of media hype when the real women were featured on Oprah.
Of course, people have taken stabs at Unilever over the years, because the company also makes and markets Axe cologne products. Those commercials and ideas are on the complete opposite of the spectrum, and people have said that Unilever is hypocritical for adversiting conflicting ideas. I think this is crap, and that people spend too much time looking for the negative.
This turned into a long comment, but I have been watching the Dove campaigns grow from the beginning. I think the concepts are fantastic, and the sleepover was a perfect example of a good psuedo-event.
Ewww,did you see those two girls at 0:27 in the True colors video!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have seen a couple of those dove commercials on tv a few years back and let me tell you those commercials were so annoying but yet They knew how to engage their audience as Melanie Lee Lockhart said.But yes Dove you do make a good point image seems the only thing to matter these days and is destroying self esteem of the young and old of this generation.
ReplyDelete