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November 2004 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report: Marketer of the Year

Overall
Dove: A clean slate
Marketer of the Year Unilever reworks Dove, Vim with focus on relevance, style and - gasp - social issues

by Samson Okalow
page 31

Two things: It's not unusual for a packaged goods marketer to win an award for its marketing. It is unusual for this kind of marketer to win not only for being effective, but also for doing some of the coolest, most innovative work out of any category.

Once, this might have seemed as unlikely as the Red Sox winning the Series. But the curse that relegated packaged goods marketers to making largely uninteresting ads for largely uninteresting brands has been lifted. This year Unilever is walking away with the big prize.

The company's global Dove work from Ogilvy U.K. has been the leadoff hitter, featuring some remarkably progressive local (Canadian) executions - from creative to media to PR - that go beyond traditional notions of advertising.

Some of Unilever's other brands, like Vim, have also gotten into the act and been rewarded by consumers and the industry alike. Zig's work on Vim (TV spot "Prison Visitor") netted a Gold Film Lion at Cannes in June, and sales have risen steadily since the spot started airing in May. These may be two different kinds of cleaners, but with a little daring and a little moxy, Unilever is discovering it can find the one kind of success that matters.

With its Dove brand marketing of the past year, packaged goods giant Unilever has given soap the kind of cultural relevance usually reserved for "lifestyle" brands like MINI or Apple. If that sounds like an impressive accomplishment, that's because it is. And because Dove enjoys its highest share in Canada, Unilever Canada played the lead role in the global marketing push for the brand.

According to Erin Iles, Dove masterbrand marketing manager at the Toronto-based company, Dove was Unilever's showcase product line this past year. Although the $3 million to $4 million spent on the "Campaign for Real Beauty" to date doesn't represent the most ever spent on a Dove campaign in Canada, Iles says it will take that title by the end of its run some time next year. And what a run it's been, highlighted by such marquee marketing as the "Beyond Compare" photo exhibit, which travelled to six cities across Canada and showcased different interpretations of female beauty by 67 women photographers in art gallery-style chic, but without all that art gallery stuff.

But that's not where the campaign ends - or begins, for that matter. Campaign for Real Beauty didn't officially launch until February 2004. However, Dove's marketing was already using the theme of women's self-image as early as fall 2003, when it partnered with the National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC).

The impetus for all this came as a result of Dove product extensions into hair care (February 2003) and face care (July 2003) and Unilever's realization that Dove's positioning in the minds of consumers wasn't where it needed to be to reflect the new breadth.

"The brand was a bar of soap with a quarter of moisturizing cream," says Iles. "People trusted it and saw it as an honest brand, but they also saw it as a bit of a boring brand. That's fine when your product mix is a bar of soap. But as soon as your product mix includes moisturizers that sell for $16 and toners and shampoos, it can't be this boring brand that lives in your shower that you don't think about. We really needed to make it a beauty brand."

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