Motherhood should be filled with joy, and yet it is all too often filled with insecurity and an unhealthy obsession with portraying an image of the perfect mom. Maddeningly unattainable photos of picture-perfect moms and their picture-perfect babies are no longer reserved for Hollywood celebrities. They are everywhere: in ads, on TV, on Facebook and Instagram. These images are making new moms feel overwhelmed, insecure, and even incompetent. In some cases, they are even contributing to a rise in post-partum depression.

Prior to launching Baby Dove, we commissioned a study to better understand millennial moms and the pressures of motherhood. It was determined that these pressures are very real. And very alarming:

•99% of moms feel pressure to be perfect.

•81% question if what they’re doing is good enough.

•56% of moms felt a great deal of pressure to regain their looks after the birth of their baby.

•75% feel unable to cope at times

To help alleviate the pressure on mom and raise confidence in her new anxiety-charged role, we commissioned several world-renowned female photojournalists, including Pulitzer prize-winning Lynsey Addario and Ami Vitale.

Over three days and nights, they immersed themselves in 6 moms’ lives, capturing the beautifully imperfect side of motherhood like never before. The resulting 120 photos in our online Gallery of Real Moms provocatively depicted the good, the bad and the messy sides of being a real mom.

In out of home and newspaper, we ignited conversation by showcasing some of our most powerful photos along with #BeautifullyRealMoms. We also gave moms a way to become a part of the solution by:

5. Inviting her to visit our photo gallery and be inspired by the beautiful realness of other moms

6. Posting her own #BeautifullyRealMoms photo in support of real moms everywhere

We wanted to be where mom is most. This meant being on BabyCenter.ca, the number one site for expecting and new moms. Because BabyCenter.ca is a J&J-owned property, it was not available to us. So we focused on another channel where mom spends her time: Social Media. Through social, we drove to our Gallery and invited moms to show their support for #BeautifullyRealMoms. Our social campaign consisted of:

A 360º Photo Gallery sampling that seeded the issue, “Are perfect photos putting too much pressure on mom?”

A :10 sec video asking moms to pause and appreciate the beauty of being a real mom.

A carousel unit inviting moms to “Help us reduce the pressure 99% of moms feel to be perfect.”

A Mother’s Day carousel, inviting moms to share their own #BeautifullyRealMoms photos.

We sparked conversation and drove to #BeautifullyRealMoms also using OOH digital billboards and newspaper.

Our Gallery of Real Moms received 143,202 visits, more than double our goal. PR reached outlets such as Huffington Post, National Post, Toronto Sun, Today’s Parent and Cityline.

In our first year on the market, Dove’s powerful brand equity and understanding of real women allowed us to capture a 9% share, while J&J Baby lost 3% share. We achieved an ROI of 4:1, based on media spend. And Baby Dove added over $5M worth of sales to the Dove base business in Canada.

To launch Baby Dove, we conducted a national study to shine a light on the anxiety triggers of first-time moms. The study revealed the internal and external pressures moms feel to achieve unattainably high standards of perfection. 99% of moms feel pressure to be perfect and 81% question if what they’re doing is good enough.

We used this insight, along with Dove’s deep understanding of real women, to develop Baby Dove’s point of view: There are no perfect moms, only real ones. We would aim to alleviate mom’s pressure to be perfect, so that she could focus on being a mom.

Our target was millennial moms with babies aged 0-2 years. So we decided to speak to her where she is most – online. We included high reaching tactics during mom’s new prime time, when she was up at night feeding, scrolling through her social feeds and looking for entertainment.

Dove has always believed that beauty should be a source of confidence versus anxiety. For 60 years, we have been challenging the portrayal of women in the media and empowering women to celebrate their own unique beauty through our campaign for “Real Beauty”. It would only make sense for Dove to extend our point of view and purpose into the most wonderful, yet most anxiety-ridden time of a woman’s life: motherhood.

Dove had been dabbling in the baby category for 10 years with little growth. An ever-expanding baby care market worth $55 million inspired us to launch a new line of premium baby care products: Baby Dove.

Our research indicated that 99% of moms feel pressure to be perfect. And 81% question if what they’re doing is good enough. But Baby Dove believes being a real mom is so much more beautiful than being perfect. So we set out to alleviate some of the