2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

OBJECTIVES
With the Real Beauty brand platform, Dove redefined notions of beauty to be more inclusive and less rooted in conventional aesthetics. During the early days of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Dove saw an opportunity to redefine beauty once again by creating a campaign to announce its commitment of over $7.5 million to support frontline workers risking their lives around the world.

INSIGHT
Ogilvy’s idea started taking form as stories began to emerge of beautiful acts of compassion big and small happening all around the world. Many of these stories were coming from heroic frontline workers putting their lives at risk to keep the rest of us healthy. Their acts of heroism in the face of illness and even death became the inspiration.

EXECUTION
Using images collected from around the world across multiple social media platforms, Ogilvy created the hero film – a montage of frontline workers and the simple but powerful statement “Courage is Beautiful” and concluding with Dove’s commitment to supporting front line workers around the world.

The film, along with shorter cut-downs, launched first in Canada then across North America on all three major TV networks. Following the success of the campaign in North America, it was quickly adapted and ran around the world in a total of 15 markets, with each country honouring healthcare workers from their local market.

Cut-downs of the film were supported on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. To ensure the message of gratitude was seen by the people who inspired it, the team purchased billboards and bus shelters outside hospitals as a way of saying thank you.

RESULTS
The campaign garnered unprecedented engagement rates in all 15 global markets. There was a 349% increase in Facebook engagement, a 1,599% increase in Twitter engagement, a 99% positive sentiment on social and in the first 24 hours of launching, the hashtag was used 360,000 times.
The campaign generated two billion global earned impressions to date, and 275 news reports including coverage on CBS This Morning, NBC, Glamour, CNN and Today.

It also had a massive impact on brand awareness and brand equity. An Omnibus study in Canada has shown significant uplift on equity with a +15pt Brand affinity increase and a +8pts main equity attribute. A Brand Lift Study in the U.S. has shown significant uplift on ad recall and message agreement. Independent research even found that “Courage is Beautiful” was the 4th most recalled COVID-19 campaign in the U.K. despite never airing in that market.

In the end, the campaign not only honoured the beautiful sacrifices made by frontline workers, it re-established Dove’s place in today’s cultural zeitgeist.

Credits

Alessandro Manfredi, Global Dove EVP, Unilever
Sophie van Ettinger, Global Brand VP - Dove Masterbrand, Unilever
Divya Singh, Dove Canada Marketing Manager, Unilever
Laura Douglas, Dove Canada Brand Manager, Unilever
Brian Murray, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy Canada
Christian Horsfall, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy Canada
Pam Danowski, Associate Creative Director, Ogilvy Canada
Tom Kenny, Chief Strategy Officer, Ogilvy Canada
Aviva Groll, Worldwide Managing Director, Ogilvy Canada
Beth Blatch, Account Director, Ogilvy Canada
Rebecca Tummers, Account Coordinator, Ogilvy Canada
Marie-Pierre Toure, Agency Producer, Ogilvy Canada
Eric Thompson, Agency Producer/Online Editor, Ogilvy Canada
David Scanlon, Sr. Print Producer, Ogilvy Canada
Nadja Bellan-White, Worldwide Managing Partner, Ogilvy London
Dan Fisher, Global Executive Creative Director (Unilever), Ogilvy London
Juliana Paracencio, Creative Director, Ogilvy London
Sam Pierce, Global Managing Partner (Dove), Ogilvy London
Georgie Howard, Global Business Director, Ogilvy London
Mike Kerry, Global Creative Delivery Lead (Unilever), Ogilvy London
Pia Smith-Boquien, Programme Director (Dove), Ogilvy London
Sarah Thomson, Head of Art Production (Unilever), Ogilvy London
Chloe Jahanshahi, Art Producer, Ogilvy London
Jonathon Nixon, Art Producer, Ogilvy London
Matthew Jones, Head of Integrated Production (Unilever), Ogilvy London
Kaitlin Roach, Client Partner, PR, Ogilvy London
Ben Kay, Chief Strategy Officer, WPP London
Michelle Morgan, Associate Director, Mindshare, US
Dana Paolucci, Senior Account Supervisor, Edelman, US
Hetal Patel, Senior Client Partner, Razorfish, US
Emily Fine, Program Management Director, Bustle, US
Chris Murphy, Editor, Outsider, Canada
Kristina Anzlinger, Executive Producer, Outsider, Canada
Didier Tovel, Audio Creative Director, SNDWRx Canada