Dove’s thought leadership platform changes face of advertising

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Dove's FB campaign shows how thought leadership can drive innovation across a variety of platforms

Despite the obvious benefits, the beauty of a great thought leadership campaign is the spin off it can create for that person or the brand.

Take Dove for example.  Their Campaign for Real Beauty is one of the best examples of a consumer thought leadership campaign I
have seen (see the case study I wrote up about it here).  It has spawned a content-rich environment for them around this topic to such a degree that they pretty much ‘own’ the discussions around real beauty.

Dove displays innovation driven by their thought leadership position

Their next move announced this week is brilliant – a ‘Dove ad makeover’ Facebook app, which allows Facebook users to displace existing advertising messages on their pages with positive ads from Dove.

This is great innovation driven by a thought leadership position on real beauty.

Check this brief You Tube clip out to get the idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhI3Wzs2gJA&feature=player_embedded

I’d be interested in your thoughts.

 I’m a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  Please check out my book: Brand Stand: seven steps
to thought leadership,  follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy or join me on LinkedIn.

5 Responses to “Dove’s thought leadership platform changes face of advertising”

1. Steve White says:

   May 9, 2012 at 02:21

   This is a great example of a company who decided to step outside of the norm and seize a new opportunity. They decided to accept change and, in doing so, were able to leapfrog the competition and secure a foothold in a very important market. Thanks for sharing!
2. craig says:

   May 9, 2012 at 06:53

   Thanks Steve, you’re right and stepping outside of your comfort zone is one of the traits of a thought leader which Dove has shown itself to be a number of times over the years.
3. Britton Manasco says:

   May 10, 2012 at 09:28

   There’s something powerful about looking beneath the surface of things. (Or pulling back a curtain to reveal a hidden truth.) It’s as if you are intimating there is a kind of conspiracy at work but, ironically, you and your prospect will conspire to see through it. The beauty-industrial complex is something to be in awe of — and something to be suspicious of.

   There will always be an aristocracy of culturally defined beauty. Dove, however, does a powerful job of playing on the ambivalence of its customers. It identifies something we all want to believe — that beauty is something more than physical appearances. True thought leaders, as I see it, are gifted at tapping into these deeper yearnings and illuminating an alternative path that we might travel. By gaining our trust, they make it only sensible for us to travel this path with them.
4. craig says:

   May 10, 2012 at 15:41

   Britton a very insightful comment. I think you’ve hit on the nub of thought leadership which is delivering insights that have the ability to change people’s existing schemas thus creating the trust to, as you say, travel the path with them.
5. Content Marketing Requires Message Mapping | soulati.com says:

   May 21, 2012 at 20:00

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