Only 4% of women believe they are beautiful. How could we prove to the other 96% that they are more beautiful than they think?

We invited an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw a woman’s portrait first according to her own self-description, then according to a stranger’s description of her. Throughout, the artist never laid eyes on the women themselves. In the end, women admitted that portraits based on the strangers’ descriptions were more beautiful, and accurate.

The film provided striking proof that women are more beautiful than they think.

We then architected an ambitious global PR strategy to launch the campaign with minimal paid media support. The core of our strategy was to position the film as a social experiment and thus ignite a conversation around self-perception. The press release, featured in PR Newswire’s Content We Love and singled out as best-in-class, focused on the story elements, rather than the brand.

We also partnered with the forensic artist and two of the real women portrayed in the film to tell their personal story through media opportunities in the US, Canada, Brazil and Australia.

The conversation exploded in mainstream media and after only 10 days, we had results like:

- 3 Billion media impressions (all original stories)

- 14 CNN/HLN segments

- Segments on The Today show, Good Morning America, NBC news

- Articles in the New York Times,The Guardian, Forbes.com, The Telegraph, Huffington Post

• The most shared article in the history of mashable.com

Research had identified that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful. Our mission therefore was simple: to move the other 96% of women to realize that they are more beautiful than they think.

To achieve this we needed an ambitious PR campaign that would ignite a global conversation about womens’ self-perception. To effectively challenge womens’ self-image we had to involve everyone around them: cultural opinion leaders, major broadcasters, broadsheets, celebrities, husbands, fathers and above all, women themselves. Our goal was ambitious: to ask the world to discuss how women saw themselves.

A conversation about women’s self-perception exploded in mainstream media. And within 10 days we had this results:

• Over 3 billion media impressions generated (all original stories, no press release posting)

• CPM of U$ 0.08.

• Featured on The Today show, Good Morning America, NBC news

• Generated the equivalent of 92 million 30 second spots in earned media.

• 14 CNN and HLN segments

Leading millions of women to get involved in the Dove conversation

• 1.9 million aggregate shares on Facebook, 98,3% likes on Youtube

• 208 million Twitter impressions

• 1 million Likes

All of which impacted the brand’s relationship with consumers:

• 14,368% increase in daily rate of tweets about the brand

• 4.3 million clicks through to the Dove site

• Brand search volumes online increased up to 5 times across markets.

We launched the film with a global exclusive on the Today Show, the biggest morning show in the U.S and the Huffington Post, known to ignite global conversation and reverberation in multiple media channels. Both opportunities featured interviews with the real women. Minutes after the Today Show segment ran, we distributed the film to top media around the world, which was quickly shared by media and millions of people. Within days the film became the most shared article on Mashable’s history, and within a week had generated global headlines.

Tragically, on April 15th, the day prior to launch, 2 bombs were detonated at Boston Marathon In crises such as these, our recommendation would be to postpone launch but media wanted positive news and given the inspiring campaign message requested that we move forward without delay. This was a true testament to the compelling message behind the Dove Real Beauty Sketches.

Only 4% of women believe they are beautiful. Women are their own worst critics. The Dove Movement for self-esteem invites all women to join in creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. To meet this ambition, Dove focused on the biggest barrier to women feeling beautiful: their own self-perception. We wanted women to reconsider their own self-image and accept their true beauty.

With a U$ 240,000 investment, we architected an ambitious, global PR strategy to launch the Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign with minimal paid media support. The core of our strategy was to position the film as a social experiment and thus ignite a conversation around self-perception.

The press release, featured in PR Newswire’s Content We Love and singled out as best-in-class, focused on the story elements, rather than the brand.

We partnered with the forensic artist and two of the real women portrayed in the film to tell their personal story through national media opportunities.