Unilever owned FMCG brand, Dove launched its new hair fall treatment product via real women sharing their experiences with the product through videos and blog posts, in the Dove Hair Fall Rescue Diary.
Beauty brand Dove, recognized for its advertising focused on everyday women, has introduced a new product for hair fall – ‘the Dove hair fall rescue treatment’ that promises to strengthen and nourish from the roots, helping to reduce hair fall in just two weeks. Hair fall is a common problem for many women, but they often hesitate to discuss it. Keeping this in mind, the brand has created a comprehensive campaign featuring real women sharing their hair fall experiences and how the new product helped them.
I stumbled upon the campaign through a banner ad on YouTube yesterday, which also featured one of the story videos along with real life women who have found a cure to hair fall and now want to share it with you. Impressed by the pitch, I clicked on the ‘Discover’ button and was taken to the brand’s YouTube channel.
The home page, designed as a diary talks about the product and encourages you to hear the personal experience from the Dove bloggers themselves. Adjacent to this are featured videos of women from varied backgrounds yet who are social savvy bloggers. There is bridal make-up artist- Akriti Sachdev, fashion bloggers – Jasleen and Sonu, travel blogger – Shivya Nath, author Kiran Manral among others.
Dove India YouTube channel
Viewers are encouraged to share the secret via a cool contest called ‘Share the secret’ with product hampers to be won. When you click on the green button, you are led to the Facebook ‘Dove secret diary‘ app which resembles the YouTube diary in design, but only this diary is a closed one. In addition, there is a link displayed at the bottom to shop online.
About ‘Share the secret’ contest
You click on ‘enter’ to open the diary. The home page or ‘Secret Diaries’ welcomes you similar to the YouTube page with product information, contest link and story videos. Click on any of the photos to get her complete story right from her every day schedule and hair fall problems to how Dove’s hair fall rescue treatment helped her.
Dove hairfall secret diaries on Facebook
The app has 4 more tabs: 1) ’The Dove hair fall rescue range’ that gives complete information about the product and how to go about using the entire range with illustrated steps, 2) ‘About hair fall’ which explains about hair fall and answers FAQs to bust myths regarding hair fall, 3) ‘Featured articles’, as the name suggests gives you additional detailed information about hair fall and the Dove product, 4) ‘Contest’ is the quiz that can win you the product either in beauty kits or exclusive Dove bags.
The contest is a simple multi-choice quiz with questions centred around the stories and the product. The app has an option to share and also encourages you to share any of the story videos to increase your chances of winning!
How good is ‘Dove secret diaries’?
I’d say ‘Dove Secret Diaries’ is a cool campaign for a product launch. It manages to build ample curiosity and moreover offers the product as the prize, thus completing the cycle. Dove has always campaigned around real women and their stories. But, this one seems as real as real women can be by featuring a few women I already knew. For instance, I follow author Kiran Manral on Twitter and was quite taken aback to see her endorsing Dove, while sharing her story. I’m convinced other women will be able to relate to the fashion bloggers, travel bloggers, writers, etc. featured in the video.
To add to this, the Facebook app scores a perfect 10! Beautiful and pleasing design, smooth navigation, clarity of information and despite having too much in the app it did not appear crowded. Moreover, it enables sharing on Facebook, further amplifying campaign visibility. The link to shop online on the YouTube page is also a well thought essential addition.
In between of all this, the Consumer Complaints Council on ASCI has upheld the complaint made on the Dove Hair Fall Rescue Treatment TVC, saying that the product claims are not adequately substantiated. However, this has not affected the online promotions whatsoever. From the YouTube ad to the YouTube channel, ultimately leading the target viewer to the Facebook page, I find a single brand voice speaking to me about a secret that I would like to know – a solution to my hair fall problem from other women just like me.
All in all, it’s a good campaign that brings home the point and convincingly too, although it has to pass the real acid test from the consumers. But, I’d like to know Dove’s idea behind having a global Facebook page and not having a dedicated one for India?
Even earlier in the year, Dove had been reaching out to women who are active on social media, especially women bloggers. By giving product hampers at blogger meetups to hosting a blogging contest around ‘My beautiful hair story’ on one of the largest platform of Indian bloggers, Dove has been on a continuous journey of building a community of women interested in hair care.
What are your thoughts on the campaign? Is Dove weaving in memorable stories?