A brand that is no stranger to viral advertising is Dove beauty. Stemming from the consumer giant Unilever, they have managed to create several advertising campaigns that were well received with audiences and digitally based for maximum sharing. Dove advertisements usually tug at the heartstrings, and have a deep story within that encourages people to share, therefore taking the message from Dove onto a viral level. Part of Dove’s success is that as beauty and personal care brand, they push the natural beauty aspect that connects with large populations of women and makes them feel honored in a way. (Sriram, 2014) Therefore, the consumer will buy dove products because the advertising has connected to them on a …show more content…
At the end, Dove reminds the viewer that “you are more beautiful than you think.” This simple video became one of the most played video ads on YouTube. The first two weeks the video was posted, it attracted 3.17 million shares. The video was transversal between men and women, young and old and it made many people share it and allow the campaign to reach that viral fame. (Stampler, 2013) Dove understands the viral model and how to crack it. They give the consumers a story, emotional depth and something that will universally appease all audiences. If you focus on positives and try to sell that side of the story more people will gravitate towards it and share …show more content…
For example, their follower’s count went from 7,000 to 750,000 within days of the viral promotion. They also received over 50,000 messages concerning the free swimsuit promise. Because of the unexpected amount of people that the promotion was shared to, the company was unprepared and made a bad name for themselves in the process of going viral. They could not keep up with the Instagram shares and did not think previously to cap the amount of free promotions to be given away. As a result, they had to backtrack the campaign way after it became wildly spread to a mass audience. Many customers got charged full price for the swimsuit and then had to contact the company again on how to get a refund as the website was not set up to handle those issues. (Oster, 2017) This example is a great case of how simple viral advertising can spread, and also how easily it can turn into something much bigger than expected when not properly planned for by the company or