Just days after becoming CEO of Unilever in March, Fernando Fernandez made waves by discussing plans to maneuver to a social-first promoting strategy, shifting 50% of ad spend to the channel and searching to work with 20 times as many influencers. Even as social media stays one in all the fastest growing marketing channels across the industry this yr, it was a daring statement.
“There are 19,000 zip codes in India. There are 5,764 municipalities in Brazil. I would like one influencer in each of them,” Fernandez said in a fireplace chat with Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman. “This is one in all the things I’ll drive like hell in the corporate in the following few years.”
Dove, Unilever’s largest brand, was one in all the first on the CPG giant to utilize influencer and creator marketing. For the brand’s leadership, Fernandez’s statement was “music to our ears,” said Marcela Melero, chief growth officer for Dove Personal Care North America and Dove Masterbrand.
“It’s reinforcing the trail we’re already going to,” Melero said. “It’s all about doubling down on efforts that we were already doing before.”
While Dove is an early focus of Unilever’s big social media push, it is anticipated to increase to the corporate’s other brands.
The expansive approach to social media is clear with Dove’s #ShareTheFirst effort, the brand’s first campaign made entirely from creator content without studios or added production. Developed with Edelman, #ShareTheFirst has scaled to 13 markets since launch, features content from global creators and sees the brand shifting from a broadcaster model to a many-to-many one.
“It’s really our way of being closer [to] and deeper with the communities that we serve,” Melero said.
Insight-driven, creator-led
For greater than twenty years, Dove’s “Real Beauty” platform has looked to construct self-confidence in women of all ages. Its evolving efforts have all the time been based in research, and #ShareTheFirst isn’t any different. The brand found that nine in 10 women take as much as 50 photos before posting one, and that six out of 10 don’t post their glad moments on social media because they are not glad with their photos.
“Especially as a girl, it’s totally easy to take multiple photos, feel barely self-conscious about your body — whatever that is perhaps — and never share it,” said Sarah Potter, global Dove PR and social influencer director. “How can we bring that joy back to capturing those real, spontaneous moments?”
Dove has worked to utilize creators as connectors to communities relatively than simply a media channel. #ShareTheFirst goes further: After conversations with Edelman, Dove decided to maneuver from using creators as effort extenders to the be-all-end-all of campaign creation — a first for the brand.
“Basically, all the things from the direction of how we were going to do it, the tone of voice, the execution, the content — all the things got here from creators. There was no [pre-production meeting], there was no production, each creator has their very own stories… so what you get is so rather more wealthy and priceless,” said Melero.
Dove began testing the campaign concept with U.K.-based creator Lucy Reeves before expanding to greater than 100 influencers. The campaign includes an out-of-home takeover at London’s Liverpool Street station that uses 64 digital screens to mimic a scrolling camera roll. The creator-led approach allowed the campaign to go from temporary to live inside 48 hours in some markets, enabling the brand to maintain up with the speed and specificity of social media.
“If you give three creators the identical temporary, you are not going to get back the identical content,” Potter said. “They know what works for their community, they know what works for their followers.”
Commitment to creators — and purpose
Dove has worked with a few of its community of creators since 2017, so #ShareTheFirst worked as a natural extension of previous efforts and relied on years of built-in trust between brand and creator.
“We’ve moved beyond just working with creators because the amplifiers of the story. They’re really co-creating with us,” Potter said. “They’ve been a part of our community for the long run. We’re not taking a look at contracting someone inside 24 hours to suddenly post concerning the brand.”
Dove’s existing relationships allow the brand to search out creators which can be aligned with its values which have been established with platforms like “No Digital Distortion” and pledges like its announcement last yr that it could not use artificial intelligence to represent women in its promoting and communications.
“It’s the creators that tell us, ‘You must do something with this,’” Melero said, citing a 2023 effort against a trending filter for example. “That’s how these relationships are being built.”
With “Real Beauty,” Dove has worked to make beauty a source of happiness — not anxiety — for women all over the place. That mantra stays the identical, whilst the platform evolves to be relevant and connected to cultural conversations. But despite an industry-wide retreat on purpose-driven marketing — and, in Unilever’s case, activist investor actions — that just isn’t happening at Dove.
“Purpose is the key sauce of Dove, and purpose has been at the middle of the expansion trajectory of this brand,” Melero said. “This just isn’t being questioned in any respect: We stay true to our north star… It’s not an issue, and we’re very committed to it.”
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