Dove Evolution: A Case of Viral Marketing

When I hear the term ‘viral marketing’ I instantly think about the brand Dove. Dove has had a lot of pretty successful campaigns like the one where they invited consumers to the Dove website to pick a virtual flower, write a message and send it to one of their friends or family. I participated in this particular case of viral marketing and so did many others, evidently a case of successful marketing since the campaign reached a lot of people. One of Dove’s most successful campaigns is the one called ‘Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty’ in which they used the viral ‘Evolution’. This viral, among others, has been created to raise awareness about the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. The goal of this fund is to help Canadian women and girls build stronger self-esteem and a positive self-image. The Campaign for Real Beauty was originally created by the agency Ogilvy & Mather Toronto for the Canadian market. The agency never had imagined that it would have such a big impact not only in Canada but all over the world.

The video ‘Evolution’ shows a fairly ordinary woman, being made up by make-up artists, photographed and then digitally manipulated in a really beautiful model. The final shot is of this model on a billboard with the line saying: ‘No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted’.

I myself, doing some modeling on the side, know that the ads in magazines and on television are not the real thing. Those girls are made prettier than they actually are, fact is that not everyone understands this, resulting in young girls and women with low self-esteem. One of the reasons why the video ‘Evolution’ made such an impact is because of the emotions it stirred among people. When someone feels deep emotions watching a video it makes an impact and when it makes an impact this person is likely to pass the video on, same goes for the next person that receives the link to the video, ultimately creating an ‘infectious’ viral. Creating emotions is one of the most important trades a viral must embody to be successful.

Creating a memorable message is also one of the most important factors for a viral to be successful. Dove created a message saying that our view of beauty is not corresponding to reality. Most people did or do not know how ‘fake’ the beauty industry really is. This is why the message made such an big impact on people’s perception and resulted in remembering who sent the message: Dove. This way Dove created brand-loyalty, consumers will likely remember the message Dove sent and buy more products of the brand if they appreciate the message. Dove is sending out a message to consumers that they actually care, a message that most other brands in the beauty industry do not send out.

Online media is a really powerful tool to get your message across. Something stated on the internet can be sent across the world in just a few seconds. The reach of internet is very wide. People talked about this particular viral on their blogs or created responses in the form of videos on YouTube, be it serious ones or spoofs. By doing this, the power of the viral only grew bigger and bigger, creating a buzz and reaching more people across the globe.

People that had been exposed to the viral reported a change in their attitude towards the brand, even the people that only had heard about it and had not seen it. The video has been watched over 8 million times on YouTube and this number is still growing and probably will be for the coming years, creating a buzz for Dove. Concludingly you can say that viral marketing is a really powerful tool if you use it the right way. You could change the attitude of people towards the brand with viral marketing, resulting in more sales.