Unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by media and increasingly critical posts on social media negatively impact the women of Hong Kong, with 63% not satisfied with their physical appearance. While Dove has taken the lead to inspire and celebrate the beauty in confidence through its Real Beauty brand platform to a resounding success globally, Dove’s singular voice has fallen flat locally due to not having localized communications in Hong Kong for over a decade.

Thus in 2018, Dove launched the ‘Appreciate Don’t Adjudicate’ campaign which addressed the negative impact of biting remarks and negative labels on the women of Hong Kong, translating Real Beauty into a local context. But while Dove had created awareness and taken the lead in addressing this worrying issue, Dove’s solo voice could not transform an industry overnight. Dove need to continue its efforts to build local resonance and drive self-confidence in Hong Kong women.

Our strategy focused on going beyond our own personal care category to address female beauty stereotypes perpetuated by the entire advertising industry by creating more Real Beauty trailblazers that could campaign alongside Dove.

We undertook an innovative approach in challenging beauty norms through a partnership with 11 different female-focused brands across a wide variety of product categories. These 11 brands were chosen to cover the gamut of ways that advertising imagery affects self-worth: lululemon (fitness), Canon (photography), Kotex (feminine hygiene), agnès b (fashion), Braologie (lingerie), Watson’s Water (health & wellbeing), Optical 88 (eye health), Fashion Walk (high-end fashion and retail hub), Expedia (travel), Leo Diamond (jewellery) and NPV (pet & veterinary services).

Through mobilizing the collective power of these brands, Dove could truly challenge beauty norms at-scale across a larger canvas, amplify our cause and demonstrate to Hong Kong that there is Not Just One Brand of Real Beauty.

The campaign launched by introducing 1+11 real beauties each of whom became a spokesperson for Dove or one of the 11 co-brands. They featured in a brand video which was distributed at high-traffic locations such as social media, underground rail, and SOGO Outdoor TV (located in Hong Kong’s busiest fashion district). Each co-brand partner also distributed the video through their social channels to further extend our reach.

Our 1+11 real beauties featured in the brand video also told their personal stories through testimonial videos shared on social media. Their testimonials detailed how they faced adversity and then came to accept their own unique beauty.

Lastly, we invited all Hong Kong women to upload their unfiltered selfies to an advocacy platform. The platform branded users as Real Beauty’ advocates and urged them to share their ambassador status. Their advocacy invited their peers to do same, helping us further spread our cause.

Through embracing the collective power of Dove and our 11 co-brand partners, we amplified our reach and challenged problematic beauty norms at a wider scale. Our campaign reached 95% of all women in Hong Kong in which our co-brand partners contributed 10% additional unique incremental reach.

The partnership also touched hearts in which the localized approach gave ‘Real Beauty’ greater momentum in Hong Kong. Our brand video got 2.1M+ video views, which is far more than any previous campaign efforts and our advocacy platform generated 9,858 selfies.

Lastly, the campaign brought demonstrable results for Dove and our co-brand partners, driving renewed interest and brand love. We saw a 26% increase in search volumes for selected brand terms, 6% ad recall uplift vs. competitors, 36% sales uplift for Dove and an average 4% increase in consideration and purchase intent for co-brand partners post-campaign.