Company: Dove Hair Care
Agency: Edelman Public Relations
Timeframe: 2007
Hair trends may fluctuate from year to year, but one thing remains constant: For many women, hair care is more than a routine--it's an obsession. Inspired by picture-perfect
styles captured in the media, many women bring a photo of their favorite celebrity to a salon, hoping to emulate the look. However, what most people fail to realize is that these
celebrity hairstyles are the by-products of top-rank stylists' efforts, many hours in a salon and thousands of dollars spent, making the average woman's desire to mimic a red-carpet
coif unrealistic. As always, the media sets impossible beauty standards.
With this in mind, Dove Hair Care, a Unilever global brand, decided it was time to shift consumers' perceptions of their own hair; thus, in 2007, the brand aligned with the Dove
Campaign for Real Beauty (a global effort first launched in 2004 to challenge societal perceptions of beauty; for more information, see sidebar on opposite page) to encourage women
to question the media's standard for beauty, and to inspire them to love their hair as is. From this notion, the seeds were sown for the Dove Love Your Hair campaign.
Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
From the beginning, it was a fait accompli that Dove's PR agency would be Edelman Public Relations due to its prior association with Unilever.
"Edelman has been a long-time Dove partner," says Stacie Bright, senior communications manager for Unilever, when describing the relationship between the two firms. Edelman's
role on the campaign was to provide marketing communication efforts for the Dove Love Your Hair campaign.
"Unilever and Edelman have a true partnership where we collaborate to identify objectives, strategies and messages that meet programs' needs," Bright says. "All programs [that we
have worked with Edelman on] are rooted in research and measured against clearly defined benchmarks that we determine together as a team."
Working with Edelman, the Dove team created the following objectives for the campaign:
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Elevate Dove Hair Care awareness through media outreach;
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Expand reach beyond beauty pages by targeting national entertainment media; and,
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Drive consumer traffic to the campaign Web site, doveloveyourhair.com.
"The program was designed to help women realize the potential of their own hair and inspire them not to compare their hair to unrealistic images in the media," Bright says. "This
is an important message that we wanted to spread to both women and girls throughout the campaign."
Splitting Hairs
To prepare the launch, Dove and Edelman conducted a national study with Impulse Research to examine women's attitudes about their hair in comparison with images they see in the
media.
The study, based on the reactions of 1,029 participants, revealed that 94% of women feel "more attractive, happier and confident" on a day when they love their hair; 66% of women
love their hair only one day per week; and 60% of women believe that images they see in the media set the standard for what they consider beautiful.
"Listening to real women is one of the key pillars [of this campaign]," Bright says. "[We wanted] women to love the hair they have and inspire them not to compare their hair to
unattainable hairstyles in the media and Hollywood."
Dove Hair Care also polled 100 insiders, including models and celebrity stylists, to gain insight into what it takes to achieve Hollywood hair. The findings were very telling.
According to the poll, 82% of beauty industry insiders say it takes two to three people to create hairstyles for a camera-ready look or a red-carpet event; and 84% of beauty
insiders report that it takes them or their stylists an average of two to four hours to wash and style hair for a public appearance or red-carpet event.
The results of these studies provided a strong basis for Dove's goal of encouraging women to love their hair rather than strive for looks that are unrealistic every day. The
results also became the foundation for key messages and public relations strategies.
Hollywood Hair, Deconstructed
An important goal of the campaign was to reveal the truth behind the creation of Hollywood hair. This was done when the campaign was launched in July 2007 with Dove's first-ever
live Web conference, which featured actress Ali Larter.
The footage, offered exclusively to Entertainment Tonight, went behind the scenes as Larter prepared for a red-carpet event. A B-roll package about the extensive measures
taken to create a camera-ready look was developed to show non-celebrity women just how unattainable these hairstyles are for everyday life.
Then, taking advantage of Dove's long-standing relationship with the Girl Scouts of the USA, Dove Hair Care hosted two hair self-esteem workshops in New York called "Girl Talk."
Larter and celebrity hairstylist Gretchen Monahan were on hand to conduct it. Both gave firsthand accounts of what it really takes to achieve Hollywood hair. Monahan deconstructed a
Hollywood hairstyle to expose the extreme process and tools it takes to create these hairstyles.
The workshop offered encouragement and inspiration for the Girl Scouts to embrace their hair and build self-esteem while teaching participants on how to properly care for their
hair. It also facilitated self-esteem-building activities and engagement with the girls.
An online ad contest via http://www.doveloveyourhair.com
also helped women build self-esteem. Here women were encouraged to get involved
in this program and create customized Dove Hair Care print ads based on their
personal feelings about their own hair. Visitors to the site were able to find
support from other women through an online gallery of submitted ads. Ultimately,
six women and their ads were selected to run in several Hearst magazines in
fall 2007.
For the 2007 Emmy Awards, which took place Sept. 16 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Ali Larter was asked by Dove Hair Care to "walk the talk" by forgoing her usual pre-
awards show hair preparation and "go real" with her tresses. Using Dove Hair Care products, Larter created her own hairstyle.
With a large brand like Dove, for which many campaigns are launched throughout the year, a key challenge for the project team was making their campaign unique, says Bright. This
was important for the program to "pass through our brand filter and allow us to ladder back to consistent messaging."
Taking Hair To The Next Level
Media outreach for the campaign was extensive. The 2007 Dove Total Hair Trend Guide, which educates readers on how to create real, beautiful hair by using Dove Hair Care
products, was distributed to media outlets. Other components included live satellite and radio media tours in key local markets; online engagement programs to interest beauty
bloggers about Dove Hair Care; and distribution of a multimedia news release with press materials and AP photographs.
The return on investment was impressive. To date, the campaign has garnered more than 603 million media impressions, exceeding the benchmark goal of 398 million impressions.
Coverage included pieces in magazines such as Allure, Glamour, US Weekly and People, and 1,454 broadcast stories on top-ranked stations.
Coverage in entertainment media was also substantial. The campaign had an exclusive partnership with Entertainment Tonight, which resulted in four on-air Dove Hair Care
mentions. Also, there were 11 national entertainment placements.
This widespread media coverage led to a dramatic spike in consumer traffic at doveloveyourhair.com; there was an 89% increase in traffic and, to date, there have been more than
290,000 sample requests on doveloveyourhair.com and 2,568 entries to the online ad contest.
For Bright, the lesson learned was to be consistent with an initiative's messaging and goals. "As components of a program change," she says, "it is important to always stay true
to the essence and objectives of the program." PRN
CONTACT:
Stacie Bright, [email protected]; Larry Koffler, [email protected]
Goals, Unlimited
If there is anything that Stacie Bright, senior communications manager for Unilever, learned while working on the Dove Love Your Hair campaign, it's the importance of never
shying away from a goal. That mentality, she says, is an important best practice for other PR practitioners to follow when launching similar initiatives.
"There will always be obstacles and challenges, but don't let that limit your thinking. If you have a big idea, don't be afraid to look at it upside down, inside out and sideways
to see how you can execute it in a way that achieves similar desired results. Many great campaigns have started with the glimmer of an idea and have been successful because of a
team's dedication and resourcefulness."
Rebranding Beauty
The Dove/Edelman team is by no means new to rebranding tough beauty issues. Beginning in 2004, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, punctuated by ads with non-celebrity women of
all shapes and sizes posing in their underwear, helped redefine beauty standards. Based on that campaign, which Dove Love Your Hair complements nicely, Unilever senior
communications manager Stacie Bright and Larry Koffler (SVP/consumer brands, Edelman), offer these best practices for branding and marketing success:
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Research the target audience: In both Dove campaigns, the target audience was women, and convincing them to completely redefine their perceptions took a great deal of
research. "The ability to have third-party validation was critical," Bright says.
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Illustrate your point: Visuals were key in underscoring the campaigns' messages. In the Campaign for Real Beauty, the pictures of shapely women in their underwear were far
more powerful than any report or press release; likewise, the Love Your Hair video detailing the time and manpower behind every celebrity hairstyle made this standard of beauty
suddenly seem ridiculous. "The ability to spark a conversation and societal debate was a key strategy," Koffler said last year in regard to the Campaign for Real Beauty.
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Link up with a cause: Both Dove initiatives partnered with the Girl Scouts of America, making a distinct effort to change perceptions by targeting a very impressionable
audience: young girls. "Just having a call to action was critical," Koffler said. "It connected to the heart of the brand."
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Think big, go bigger: Once the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty really took off, extensions became a natural way to continue the momentum and to engage new audiences. Real
Beauty's 2007 spin-off "Pro-Age" targeted "vintage" women, and Love Your Hair speaks to people who may not have body issues, per se, but who are affected by the media's beauty
standards in other ways--namely, dwelling on "bad hair days." But, as is always the case with extensions, keeping the brand itself consistent is key. "Make sure you stay true to
your message," Bright says.
For more on Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty (and additional comments from Bright and Koffler), see PRN 08-20-07, "Dove's Brand Awareness Finds Beauty in Real Women."