Love 'em or hate 'em, selfies have now firmly established themselves as a part of this smartphone-addicted world. As 2013's word of the year, it looks like the craze is only set to grow, as companies like Selfie Police and Dove look to take advantage of vanity-addicts everywhere in their new campaigns.
Love ’em or hate ’em, selfies have now firmly established themselves as a part of this smartphone-addicted world. As 2013’s word of the year, it looks like the craze is only set to grow, as companies like Selfie Police and Dove look to take advantage of vanity-addicts everywhere in their new campaigns.
Dove Loves a Good Old Selfie
Dove’s incredible success over the last 12 months, thanks in main part to its Real Beauty Campaign, looks to continue on throughout this year with the coming release of its new 7 minute short film at the Sundance Film Festival, entitled ‘Selfie’.
Dove’s phenomenally successful ‘Real Beauty Sketches‘ ad, which expertly tapped into the psyches of women everywhere who felt crippled by the pressure of unrealistic expectations of beauty, was created after research carried out two years ago discovered that only 2% of women in the world said they really believed they were beautiful. One of the most popular ads of the year, the Sketches ad was personal, poignant and shareable, and was a massive online hit with more than 60 million views on YouTube.
The message of the beauty brand’s new ‘Selfie’ film, which focuses on how women can build their own confidence through self-portraits and social media, continues along a similar vein as the Sketches ad. This time however, the focus is on young women, the insecurities they feel from a frighteningly young age, and their relationships with their mothers.
By getting young women together with their mothers, posing for snaps on their smartphones and realising that real beauty isn’t about air-brushed, stick-thin models, ‘Selfie’ is yet another recipe for success for the Unilever brand, which has embraced selfie-takers with open arms and used the image-focused digital trend to build yet another great viral campaign.
The team at Selfie Police think it’s pay back time
Where Dove may embrace, Selfie Police is taking a slightly… different approach to viral vanity. An innovative startup, this charity is seeking to take advantage of people’s love of the notorious ‘selfie’ by making all those guilty to fess-up and donate to charity.
Asking all social-media users to donate $1 to charity for every selfie they post online, we rather like Selfie Police’s cynical and tongue-in-cheek approach.
Co-founders Chas Barton and Dustin Locke said: “You owe humanity a dollar. On behalf of humanity, you are hereby fined $1 per selfie on charges of self-obsession.”
“It’s tricky because we’re such a selfish generation, so the question we asked was not how do we make our generation charitable, but how do we turn selfishness into charity.”
Selfies prove that just about anything can be used as a marketing strategy
Whatever the trend, the key point that can be made from the campaigns from both Dove and Selfie Police is that taking advantage of real-time online trends works. By jumping on a board a massive viral craze such as the Harlem Shake or prankvertising, brands prove to consumers that they are modern, flexible and really listen to their audiences and digital fans.
So what are you waiting for? Get that creative hat on and become the viral genius’ you were born to be!
