This campaign is relevant as it not only addresses issues within the gaming industry but also provides tangible solutions for game developers. The partnership with Women in Games and Epic Games' Unreal Engine highlights the brand's commitment to amplifying the representation of beauty in women and girls within video games. The campaign's launch includes a program called "Real Beauty in Games," which educates developers and aims to redefine and expand the representation of beauty within the gaming world. This approach sets a positive example for the industry and showcases the potential for for gaming to be more inclusive.

For over 15 years, Dove has championed Real Beauty, aiming to provide a positive beauty experience accessible to every woman. The company achieves this goal by providing girls with self-esteem education and working to eliminate unrealistic beauty ideals in industries like media and gaming.

Historically, the gaming industry has been male-dominated and rife with stereotypes. Characters, especially female characters, are very often defined by typical beauty conventions.

Around the world, 1.3 billion women play video games, with 60% playing video games before the age of 13. The games industry still reflects the narrow beauty standards of the Lara Croft era, negatively affecting female players’ self-esteem and making them feel underrepresented, as 74% of female gamers still wish for more inclusive characters.

The creative idea behind Dove's gaming campaign was to promote inclusivity and authenticity in the gaming world by challenging narrow beauty standards and sexualization of female characters. Dove worked with Real Beauty models to create 3D video game characters that were made available for free download on their website. The campaign also included the development of Real Beauty training modules for game developers to improve in-game representation of beauty. The campaign was launched with PR outreach in the UK, Canada, and the US, and was supported by influencers and a paid advertising campaign. The campaign's centerpiece was a short film that depicted the story of Cinthia, a sexualized gaming character who decides to reveal her true, authentic self. The film highlights the issue of underrepresentation of women in the gaming industry, and Dove's partnership with Unreal Engine and Women in Gaming to address this issue.

The gaming industry's narrow beauty standards, established during the Lara Croft era, have a detrimental impact on female players' self-esteem and leave them feeling underrepresented. A recent survey showed that 74% of female gamers are still looking for more inclusive characters. Globally, 1.3 billion women play video games, with 60% starting before the age of 13.

The Real Virtual Beauty campaign was activated in two parts, with two distinct audiences. The first part focused on educating game developers and the female gaming community about the importance of inclusivity in gaming. This education program was designed to reach "insiders" and promote awareness about the benefits of inclusive gaming characters.

The second part of the campaign targeted a broader audience through consumer media. By raising awareness among the general public, Dove hoped to highlight the issue of beauty standards in gaming and promote inclusivity in the industry.

To champion inclusivity in the gaming world, we selected a group of Real Beauty models and turned them into video game characters. The 3D models were available to download for free on Dove’s website.

Dove developed real beauty training modules for developers all over the world to access to enable better in-game representation of beauty in the future. All this work has been done with the Dove-funded team of self-esteem and body confidence scientists at the Centre for Appearance Research.

We launched the campaign with PR outreach in the UK, CA, and the US. Through our presence at SXSW and EGX, the biggest UK gaming Festival, we engaged the 75,000 gaming fans in attendance by hosting a panel with some of our partners and influencers as well as creating a Real Virtual Beauty booth about the lack of representation in gaming and the actions we were taking to change.

The Real Virtual Beauty campaign was a huge success, with over 46 media outlets covering the story and reaching over 300 million impressions. The campaign's reach exceeded its initial goal by doubling the targeted 250 million impressions. The initiative was received positively, with 100% positive sentiment towards the campaign. Additionally, 85% of women surveyed expressed their preference for video games with more diverse representation.

This initiative led to a partnership with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and Women in Games, kicking off the Real Beauty in Games Training, a course developed in partnership with Centre for Appearance Research and to help creators to reflect the diversity and avoid contributing to bias and stereotypes in design, equipping the next generation of players and creators with the tools they need to build self-esteem and body confidence.