How A FBI Sketch Artist Helped Create Dove’s Beauty Campaign

In 2004, Dove reached out to powerhouse marketing company Ogilvy and Mather to change his marketing strategy. They wanted to replace their unrealistic and overly produced depictions of models in their ads with real beauty. Natural, unproduced, authentic. An idea for an experiment was born. They enlisted the help of FBI sketch artist Gil Zamora. Groups of consumers were invited to a gallery space and asked to describe their physical appearance in detail while the artist listened and drew from behind a curtain. The result of the experiment showcased how more than 80% of participants had distorted versions of themselves in their heads and were less confident about the way they looked in comparison to how other people described them in a second drawing. Dove's aim was to reach people and show them that they're way more beautiful than they think. As soon as the video of this experiment got released, the reach was unbelievable. More than 50 million people viewed the powerful video within 12 days of its release. To date, Dove's real beauty sketches have been viewed more than 180 million times. Sales even increased to 4 billion from 2.5 billion in its opening campaign year. Want to tap into emotional marketing for your own campaigns? Click the link for the blog.