MANILA, PHILIPPINES — At ten in the morning, something bothered us over at the adobo Creative Hub: Who is Dianne, and why is her name on the the new Dove logo over at the Dove Philippines Facebook Page? Then there’s Pam, taking over the Pond’s Philippines logo, too.
People on the net had different amusing theories, some suggesting perhaps Dianne is the real owner of Dove; or maybe Lady Ann is, in fact, the “lady” who calls the shots behind Lady’s Choice. Some also suggested maybe they were hacked.
It wasn’t until other people on the Interwebs began pointing out that other Unilever Philippines brand pages, both on Facebook and Instagram, had new, similar-looking profile photos with different names scribbled on them, that we began connecting the dots. And after several attempts at contacting both Unilever and creative agency GIGIL, we finally confirmed the story — a new campaign is afoot.
A few swipes at Dove’s photo album will bring you to a profile photo with a similar aesthetic — the classic Dove logo in crayon scribbles. This was part of Unilever and GIGIL’s award winning campaign “Shop2Give”, which the duo ran together with Lazada in October 2018. The idea behind the campaign was to give shoppers an opportunity to give back while receiving discounts from Unilever products bought on the site.
The campaign, which won several awards in this year’s APAC Tambuli Awards, AdFest Thailand 2019, and Adobo Design Awards, was such a success, the group just had to recreate it, this time with a new twist.
We caught up with GIGIL’s Creative Partner Herbert Hernandez and Unilever Philippines’ Media Director Dennis Perez who share that this year’s iteration, dubbed as Shop2Give #AddDreamsToCart, is a way to encourage consumers to give back, hingeing on the idea of adding the dreams of those in need into their carts as they shop.
“GIGIL took our brief to another level. We know last year will be difficult to beat, but they were able to beat what they created without dropping the essence of Shop2Give. We collaborated with GIGIL by allowing them to dream and imagine how #AddDreamsToCart can be expressed, and we kept our minds open to the ideas they presented,” says Perez.
The team decided to change the names of the brands to actual names of UNICEF beneficiaries to represent the 2.8 million out-of-school Filipino youths while also ensuring that they sound close to a specific Unilever product. This was their way of personifying the beneficiaries of the campaign and really connect the products people are buying to the cause.
They add that through the platform, they hope to help UNICEF fund alternative ways of providing easier access to education, citing a program in Zamboanga del Norte as an example wherein more than 2,000 children attend sessions at community learning centers. UNICEF also supports these centers by improving accreditation systems, provide life skills development, and help supply resources. The goal? provide 800,000 students a chance to complete their education by 2023.
“The idea is primarily driven by last year’s campaign. We wanted to elevate that by not only creating a campaign that’s an upgrade of last year’s but also, by putting more focus on the value of the campaign and how it supports UNICEF,” says Hernandez. “This year, the proceeds of the sale will go specifically to the education fund of UNICEF, which is used in sending back to school the 2.8 million Filipino children who are currently out of school. To land this message in a clear and talkable way, and to make donors feel to whom proceeds their purchases will help, we convinced our Unilever clients to violate their brand logos — for a cause – and replace their products’ brand names with Filipino children names.”
So when can you shop guilt-free and in good faith? Well, as the photo says, the magic date is on August 20, 2019.
