Marcela Melero, chief growth marketing officer at Dove has been with the company for 20 years this month.
She sees her role as being a guardian and steward of the brand who will leave “in a better place for the next generation.”
“In the case of Dove, that’s even more special because purpose drives the impact of the brand,” says Melero. “Our purpose is about making beauty a source of happiness and not anxiety for women and the next generation. My role as CMO is making sure we stay true to our north star.”
This role has evolved from the era of Photoshop and runway culture to the modern times of social media. “We need to make sure the brand stays relevant in culture,”
For instance, Dove is using its official sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to drive home a key message for the brand: helping girls build body confidence so they can stay in the game. “The Game is Ours” effort is based on insights that one in two girls quits sports after being criticized for their body type. The spot is centered on a new campaign film that encourages girls to celebrate their bodies and the joy of sports.
“We created this campaign to celebrate the joy, confidence and sense of belonging girls experience through sport, and to encourage more girls to stay in the game,” says Melero.
The brand also collaborated with the Netflix series “Bridgerton” on a line of products inspired by the show including four fragrances and a wide array of products, including body wash, body scrub, body mist, soap and deodorant, all in packaging inspired by the romance, mystery and opulence of the show’s setting.
“This was one of those moments where two norm-defiers meet,” says Melero. “We’ve always been a norm-defier in the context of beauty. Bridgerton is a massive norm-defier in the context of social classes, monarchy and all the rest. And we got together to bring the purpose of Dove to a very new light, in a much fresher way that is relevant to the culture today.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Melero from her office in New York to discuss showing up at tentpoles, Cannes and AI. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk about the importance of showing up during tentpole events like the Super Bowl and the World Cup?
We can all agree that attention has gotten harder. We are all being bombarded with messaging. We are seeing these tentpoles — the Super Bowl and World Cup — as moments that are very relevant and offer an opportunity to break through. We also think it’s very meaningful for our target audience. Sports are important. Girls love sports, so we want to be a part of those moments, and we want to connect football to body confidence, show girls they belong in the culture of the game, and encourage them to keep playing the sports they love. Even if the tournament is the main thing, we are still true to our purpose, using it as a springboard for our bigger message. A lot of girls are watching who are into the sport, and we want to support keeping them engaged and confident.
Unilever has been investing a lot in AI, but Dove has had a very clear stance on not using AI-generated images. Can you talk about how you’re navigating that internally to be at the forefront of innovation, but also to ensure your authenticity?
Our commitment is that Dove will never use AI to create or distort images of women in its advertising. But we use AI to change the way that we can get our message to more people, more frequently, in a more meaningful way. AI for social listening is an amazing tool. It allows us to get insights from more people and to be more relevant. AI is an amazing tool to understand, find and vet creators. It means we can reach a much bigger volume of creators and reach new audiences. We use it to maximize impact, but never to create or distort.”
Can you talk about how you’re thinking about getting attention in a fragmented landscape?
We are all overwhelmed with information. We’ve never seen so many channels in media. So trying to be relevant and meaningful is tougher than ever. As consumers, we don’t experience things through channels. We experience them through life. We are immersed in those experiences without understanding, without thinking about which media it is coming from. We are trying to as be as obsessed as possible with communities. We are studying those cohorts and cultures so we can understand where the passion points are, that’s where then it starts guiding how and where we show up.
An example is the Dove x Crumbl collaboration. That started very much on the Crumbl obsession that was happening on TikTok. We did not start with, these are the channels, how are we going to reach these people? We said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ That got us into having a media strategy. We were looking at culture around Crumbl and saw that they change their flavours every Monday. We started tapping into a set of creators whose fans were built around the anticipation of the new drop. We had fun with it. We launched our new fragrances, just like the cookies, with all kinds of these creators. This is an example of where, for us, it’s about understanding these fandoms, these cohorts and these subcultures. From there, you have to reach them, rather than simply defining a media strategy.”
We’re heading to Cannes next week. What are the big things you are thinking about as you get ready for the event?
I am thinking about building emotional connections. I love to be able to build emotional connections in a way that can also generate and drive change. Cannes is going to be even more special for me this year, because I’m on the jury this year. I’m part of the Sustainable Development Goals jury, which is all about trying to use creativity for good. I’m already doing a lot of informed judging leading into the event. I cannot say much, but I can say that when you think the bar has been raised, the bar has been raised yet again. You’ll be surprised with a lot of the things that we’ve seen. The optimism is something that’s coming across much more in the work. I’m amazed at how – especially in this category – creativity is being used for good. And good is not just one aspect, but many aspects of the goals. It’s been quite impressive.
You’ve been with Unilever for almost two decades. Can you talk about what you’ve learned through your years at the company and how you apply that in your current role?
Having been on this journey with the brand for 20 years has allowed me to see this business evolve. We started with taking on the industry of Photoshop. Then we went to social media. We were doing a lot of detoxifying that feed. We have a goal of always moving and improving. The journey has been knowing this brand and being able to adapt and stay true to the brand but also still being able to reflect to keep it going. The biggest learning through all these years is that in a big brand like this, the biggest risk is not taking any risk at all because that’s when you start becoming obsolete and you start becoming a brand of the past.
