Global Comms Planning proves effective for PHD and Unilever
DOVE® Real Beauty Sketches notches up 19 Awards at Cannes
Dove chief Fernando Machado: “We broke every rule in the Unilever book”
Following 19 Cannes Lions awards for the Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign, Unilever’s media agency PHD has said the wins prove testament to the investment in its dedicated global communications planning unit, launched at the start of the year. It was central to the paid media strategy for the campaign, which is today the most viewed online video ad ever with over 165,000,000 views. Not only has the film been viewed in record numbers around the world, it is also the most shared video ad in over a year.
It picked up awards across the board including the Grand Prix for Titanium, a Gold Lion for Titanium & Integrated and Gold for Media, Best Use of Social Media as well as 16 others in a range of categories from Media to Cyber*.
Joel Pearson, Innovation Director at PHD said, “Crucial to our strategy working globally was the ability to be nimble, responsive and operate centrally. Our global control centre enabled real-time monitoring, optimisation and response to media performance, conversations, sentiment and content distribution”.
The approach with YouTube’s TrueView product – enabling Unilever to pay only once a user had decided to not to skip and then watch at least 30 seconds of the 3 minute film – supported and drove reach for content that was already strong enough to really resonate and connect emotionally with consumers, resulting in highly efficient scale.
“All activity was monitored daily, and activity was optimised against cost, interaction and engagement, market penetration, and pace of delivery – ensuring that Dove Real Beauty Sketches was being seen by the right people, in the right place, at the right time.” continued Pearson.
