• by Alex Miller , April 18, 2006

Following its successful "Campaign for Real Beauty" wasn't easy, but Unilever's Dove brand was on a roll when it launched a new line of Calming Night products with a smorgasbord of old -- even really old -- media, banking on a red-hot star, a dynamic partner, and a lot of faith in online media and marketing.

Dove's Calming Night line consists of soaps and lotions that are positioned as soothing treats for women at the end of a long day. To capture the mood in a lighthearted way, Dove teamed with Mindshare Entertainment to create a mini-site (dovenight.com) featuring a trio of Webisodes starring Emmy-winning actress Felicity Huffman from "Desperate Housewives." The creative team hired director Penny Marshall to develop "Nighttime Classics," in which Huffman is transported into episodes of classic sitcoms like "Leave It to Beaver," "The Munsters," and "The Brady Bunch."

TV commercials drove women online to the Webisodes and to request hundreds of thousands of product samples. The Webisodes also received a fair amount of viral pass-around as women shared them with friends.

Joseph Jaffe, who writes a blog on new marketing at jaffejuice.com and is the author of Life After the 30-Second Spot, says he saw a lot of good things in the Dove campaign. For one, the site paired strong creative content with a sales pitch.

"A brand shouldn't have to be apologetic," Jaffe notes, referring to recent online campaigns, which limit the pitch to a logo, if that. "Dove has the credibility after the great Campaign for Real Beauty, so this feels very consistent and logical to follow."

Soap for the CEO

Traffic to the Webisodes mini-site was driven by traditional TV and print media. TV ads ran during NBC's "Today Show," "Las Vegas," and "Ellen," plus ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Huffman's own "Desperate Housewives." In print, the campaign ran in the pages of People, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, and US Weekly.

Online, banner ads appeared on AOL, Yahoo, iVillage, Pogo, and WebMD, among others. But for its principal online partner, Dove turned to AOL. In a timely confluence of themes, Dove and AOL discovered in each other a near-perfect match: AOL was preparing to launch the second year of its "Chief Everything Officer" program, recognizing everyday men and women who juggle home and career.

Looking to inject Calming Nights with some of the same "real beauty" energy from the previous campaign, Dove was open to a new approach. To Tina Sharkey, senior vice president of AOL network programming, it looked like a good fit.

"It just sounded like they were talking about the same people we've been talking to," Sharkey says. The folks at Dove agreed. "The partnership with AOL is exciting because it allows us to touch thousands of people with meaningful information and relevant tips," says Rob Master, Dove marketing director.

With Dove on board as the CEO site's main sponsor, Sharkey's team led the design of the DoveNight.com site, and gave the new product a major presence on the CEO page. AOL also looked for a way to make the campaign for CEOs and Dove even more "real," announcing a contest to find five real examples of do-it-all moms and dads across America.

The Dove campaign represents one of the first and biggest launches of a consumer packaged goods product online, Sharkey says. Paired with the contest to find CEOs, she says it also fit nicely with Dove's messaging. "At the end of the day, we'll have these winners, these beautiful essays and portraits of real people," she says. "It's very much in line with their brand, and it's a very efficient way of doing it."

Bottom Up

Sharkey says the mini-site and AOL tie-in created a bottom-up push for the brand by soliciting stories from the audience. The site also provided product information and an easy way for people to receive samples.

Meanwhile, visitors to the CEO site have struck up an interesting online conversation about the challenges of work and home. Through the bulletin board AOL created on the site, CEOs -- mostly women -- have provided plenty of commentary:

"I notice that stay-at-home moms are looked down upon especially by our counterparts -- the working moms. It seems that I have no brain and have turned to mush. This is not so!!! I consider myself very lucky to have gotten to see all of the 'firsts' in [my children's] stages and growth."

Active participation is crucial to what Sharkey calls the "360 perspective" of such a campaign. Between the traditional product messaging, the contest, the Webisodes, and the sampling, Dove got a lot of traction from its investments in Huffman and Marshall.

"Online is a very efficient way of doing it," Sharkey says. "You've got the top-down brand pushing, but also you're soliciting all those voices and stories from the audience."

That kind of thinking, Jaffe says, pushes the Dove site into a whole other category.

"They've created a kind of holistic or whole-consumption experience. It's a series of exposures wrapped in an environment, and it gives consumers the chance to really immerse themselves in it."

Model Program

Jaffe says he was intrigued by the "long-form" nature of the Dove site. "When a consumer sees this kind of content and consumes this kind of creative, it creates the ultimate win-win, because you're looking at a pretty sublime opportunity to sell to them -- if you choose," he explains.

Consumers, Jaffe says, will start to see more long-form commercials on TV, but online media is leading the way. Online also has the benefit of allowing consumers to view content like the Huffman Webisodes whenever they want to. "It's a better way, a more balanced way," he says, adding, "They're saying: 'We've got these great, cool spots, and while you're here and in the mood, we'll send you a free sample.' "

Sharkey says that AOL has received inquiries from other marketers about doing similar campaigns. And while it may seem new, to her this kind of marketing isn't so different from the network specials of TV's glory days. "Brand managers and agencies, the right talent, and media partners are rallying around it," Sharkey says. "They understand it in TV, but they're not really used to it online.

"But they get it. They're used to seeing, say, the 'Today Show' for a weeklong special brought to you by 'XYZ.' The online version is all new, and they love it," Sharkey adds. "We're seeing more brands leaning online. They're putting muscle and creative into it. It's [going] way beyond the banner."

The trick for media partners like AOL, Sharkey explains, is to create content areas that can be made relevant to the brands. In the case of Dove, having something already in place was a big help, and it made the partnership fundamentally different than others. The ability to do offline marketing and tie-ins made the project even more intriguing, Sharkey says, alluding to the CEO contest and an awards luncheon in New York to recognize the winners.

Jaffe credits Dove for making wise choices. "This was very consistent with the 'Real Beauty' campaign," he says, explaining, "There's the context of where it's coming from, the CEO site. I have to give AOL props. You just don't get more naturally beautiful than a mom, and celebrating a mom for being that CEO -- it's very authentic and real."

Having Felicity Huffman headline the Webisodes was right on target. "We've heard the stories of her struggles [as an actress and a mother], and now she's at the top of her game," Jaffe says. "People see someone worth aspiring to."

The idea fit with Dove's message: "I see a lot of consistency, and a great expression of integration," notes Jaffe of the idea's online and offline execution.