China is a distinct and challenging market. For a global brand like Dove, purpose-driven campaigns require specific local strategies to be relevant to its audience and stand out from its competitors.

Over recent years, Chinese domestic brands were capturing share of market and were integrating a more diverse approach to beauty into their advertising and positioning. As part of the brand's efforts to focus on the culture of beauty, Dove sought to actively drive conversation on the impacts of digital behaviours in 2022.

The brand set out to change this with several objectives:

- Drive mass reach of Dove’s Real Beauty message and improve brand awareness

- Link purpose to product and drive sales over competitive Q2 period

- Drive positive conversation at scale to improve culture of beauty in China

The 'filter culture' in China is so ingrained in everyday life, that Dove's strategy was to start the conversation in a high profile, mass media property called “100 Girls Journey Home.” This program is one of China's most popular for women and is centered on conversations between women and a host where they explore modern views and attitudes to life. Across ten 60-minute episodes, the conversation format was the ideal way to start the discussion with some of China's most influential and visible women.

From this high-reach moment, Dove's strategy was to connect across channels and platforms to amplify and fuel the conversation. The key channels were:

- Weibo, similar Twitter, to drive engagement during and after each episode.

- The brand's JD (JingDong) store, a leading eCommerce platform, to link purpose to product

- A market-first photo exhibition to bring stories posted online to an offline environment.

Each episode of "100 Girls Journey Home" brought deeply personal stories into the public eye which immediately resonated with our audience. During the conversations, the 10 women shared real photos and stories from their past to the present. These unfiltered exchanges inspired others to share theirs too.

After each episode, the celebrities from the show would reshare their story on Weibo. Dove then worked with female KOLs who matched the theme of each episode to add further stories, inspiring discussion. This led women to share their stories too, generating further visibility for the brand.

Dove invited 100 women who posted online to participate in an unfiltered portrait photo session. These became the “My Beauty, My Say" photo exhibition in Beijing. Next to each unfiltered portrait, their unfiltered story. Dove even extended the campaign to eCommerce by using brand ambassadors in livestreams, where their stories drove viewership and positively impacted sales.

With this campaign, Dove extended it’s long-running brand purpose, making it more relevant for today’s Chinese women.

Real Beauty Awareness:

• Dove's presence in “100 Girls Journey Home” reached over 100 million women, leading to a brand favourability increase of 95%.

• Consumer recommendation for Dove also increased by 110%. [1]

• Dove's 5 minute short feature on 'Unfiltered Beauty' reached over 30 million women in China

Business impact:

• By integrating the campaign into the eCommerce platform strategy, over 1 million people watched the brand's JD (JingDong) livestream leading to a sales increase of 186%, compared to non-campaign periods.

This campaign also tangibly impacted on the beauty conversation in China. Almost 850,000 people discussed the topic online and over 39,000 women posted their non-beauty filter photos and stories. The 'My Beauty, My Say' photo exhibition in Beijing remains the China's largest un-touched exhibition of women in China.