2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Everyone knows Dove stands for Real Beauty. It’s an iconic idea, famous in Canada and all over the world.

But leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Real Beauty campaign, the brand’s magic was fading. Canadian women aged 25-55 knew and loved what the brand stood for, but weren’t seeing it as meaningfully different enough. The top competitors’ brand scores were advancing on Dove, making the status quo no longer possible to continue.

Needing rejuvenation, Dove’s challenge was making Real Beauty feel less expected. The brand had revolutionized the category with Real Beauty in 2004, being the first brand to share the hidden side of beauty trends. But in 2023, problematic beauty was no longer novel on its own. In the age of social media, it was full-on toxicity that had become normalized – so much so, that toxic beauty trends were taken for granted and hiding in plain sight. Real Beauty had made people think, but in today’s age, they needed to be shocked.

Dove had to push the envelope and found the exact type of problem that would get people’s attention. These days, it can only take eight minutes of scrolling before a teen sees cosmetic procedure content on her
social feed.

For Canada, a country where there is no legislation preventing underage girls from getting cosmetic injectables, this should be a major concern. And yet, no one knew how many teens had gotten them – there was no statistic available online or in the media. People were unaware how widespread and serious this extreme beauty trend was amongst Canadian teens.

The brand decided to take an activist stance. If normalization was borne out of ignorance, then Dove would make sure everyone knew just how common teen cosmetic injectables were in Canada.

Through research, the brand uncovered that an astonishing 50,151 teens between the ages of 14 and 17 had turned to cosmetic injectables to alter their appearance in 2022. This would leave anyone appalled and willing to take action.

To get this information out, Dove built an installation made of 50,151 medical-grade syringes, each representing a cosmetic injection received by a Canadian teen between the ages of 14 and 17 years old
in 2022.

“The Injectable Billboard” was designed to look like thousands of tiny pixels at a distance and a canvas of syringes at closer look. Launched at Square One, one of Canada’s busiest malls, the installation announced the once-hidden statistic at an unignorable size and scale. A QR code was included where people could sign a petition demanding change. 30s,15s, and 6s videos of the installation were pushed out on social and digital channels to extend reach and get more online petition signings. This got the message seen across the country and globally, capturing the largest possible share of Dove’s target audience.

The brand not only stemmed the growing tide of competition, but also well surpassed expectations. In a year where the “Injectable Billboard” was the only uniquely Dove Canada brand activation in-market, Dove’s Brand Power scores grew to become double that of closest competitors Aveeno and Nivea in 2023. An astounding +29-point lift YOY was generated from the “Injectable Billboard” – a 21.5% difference, which translates to a +13.76% increase in penetration according to Kantar’s Brand Power model.

Most importantly, one of Real Beauty’s boldest stances on teenage girls’ self-esteem was widely seen. Over 75 million people were reached with their content, which helped generate over 76 thousand signatures to an online petition. All this helped cement Real Beauty as a platform worthy of another 20 years.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Francesco Grandi, Ogilvy Toronto
Global CCO & Partner (David Miami): Pancho Cassis
CCO (David Miami): Rafael Donato
Associate Creative Director: Sarah Dembkowski (CW, David Miami)
Georgia Taylor (AD, David Miami)

Producer: Guillaume Dubois

Agency Producer: Ogilvy Canada:
Head of Production: Cas Binnington
Senior Producer: Jaclyn Garflinkle
Studio Support: Engel Garcia
Editor/ Motion Graphic Artist: Thais Maranho
Chief Communications Officer: David Ford

Production Company: Parade
Director: Anthony Ayotte
Director of Photography: Gabriela Osio Vanden (DOP)
Photographer: Maxyme G Delisle
Photography Producer: Eliane Sauvé

Editing House: Cosmo Street
Lorenzo Bombicci (Editor)
Philipe Gomez (Assistant Editor)
Idalia Deshon (Exec Producer)
Tina Evanow (Head of Production)
Edwina Lantigua (Producer)

Colourist: Nico Cragnolino
VFX: Nico Cragnolino

PR: Global PR Director: Sandra Azedo (David Miami)
Earned Media: Edelman
EVP, National Brand Lead: Jennifer Meehan
Head of Canada Influencer: Sara Rezaee
Account Director, Brand: Danielle Bozinoff
Account Manager, Brand: Louise Hugot
Account Executive, Brand: Caelan McMichael

Social Media: Paid Media: PHD Director
Planning: Marissa Robinson
Senior Manager Social: Nishi Patel
Senior Manager Planning: Janhavi Jadhav
Assistant Planning: Anna Kovaleva

Strategy:
Ogilvy Canada:
Managing Director, Strategy: Mike Wiles
Strategy Director: Michael McDonald Beraskow
Sr. Strategist: Kate Safarian

David Miami:
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Paula Vampre
Sr. Strategist: Vanessa Amaral

Account Team:
Ogilvy Canada:
Managing Director: Anchie Contractor
Group Account Director: Karishma Goomer
Account Supervisor: Princia Dsouza
Account Executive: James Elmhirst

David Miami:
Head of Account: Carolina Vieira
Project Management: Pedro Fragata
Max Montaldo, Regina Sanquintin
Managing Director: Ricardo Honegger