When it comes to beauty, women in China are losing their confidence due to society’s unreasonable expectations. As the brand that stands for 'real beauty by real women' Dove wanted to challenge Chinese society to rethink and broaden its understanding of beauty.

We created a series of unique print ads. We invited female calligraphers to craft poignant questions onto the bellies of pregnant women – to give voice to their unborn daughters. These questions asked people if they would be willing to embrace them regardless of what shape, size or form they grew up to be.

To amplify this, we chose the most popular social media platform Sina Weibo as the channel to raise awareness.

The objectives were (i) create awareness of this social issue, (ii) inspire women to recognize and acknowledge their own beauty.

The campaign reached 84 million people. Dove’s official Weibo page saw engagement rates 10 times higher than usual. 80% of 10,000 women who engaged with this topic on Sina Weibo said they felt more confident about their own beauty after this campaign. Before this, only 4% of women in China felt they were beautiful.

The campaign successfully drove awareness, shifted perception and created confidence in a very short time for strong PR value.

Firstly, on Sina Weibo we launched a teaser phase inviting people to speak positively about a female friend’s beauty – this launched on Women’s Day, the 8th of March, and lasted until 11th of March.

Secondly, the hand-crafted questions on the bellies of the pregnant women was published as a series of print ads in popular Chinese lifestyle magazines. The digital versions appeared online at Sina Weibo.

Lastly, in conjunction with the print ads/posters, we invited several female opinion leaders to share their own stories on social media, of how they overcame their feelings of inferiority. This was at the end of March.

Launched on Women’s Day, 84 million people answered “Yes” and generated US$500,000 free media value. Men who participated said they'd be more sensitive towards their female friends and colleagues in future. And 80% of 10,000 women engaged said they felt more confident of their own beauty vs 4% initially. The topic has been mentioned 263,680 times, and there is 350% increase in engagement with the brand website.