Dove's Going for an Oscar

Unilever’s Dove has gotten traction from YouTube with its Evolution and Onslaught. It also aired a consumer-generated ad during last year’s Oscars. Dove plans to repeat last year’s success with another consumer-generated commercial contest being hyped on the YouTube homepage, which then directs Internet users to dovecreamoil.com (hosted by MSN) where the contest objective: to create and ad that captures the feeling of everyday luxury when you shower with the rich cream and lush softening oil in Dove’s supreme Cream Oil Body Wash.

Viewers of the Oscars can text to vote on their picks during the Oscar broadcast. Dove plans to air the winning commercial later that evening. No word on whether the orchestra will start to play if the commercial exceeds its :30 runtime.

The campaign is well optimized. In addition to running a spot on YouTube, Unilever bought the search term “dove cream oil” on Google. Organically, however, the site was way down the list. It came up after YouTube video spoofs and the Australian site for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash.