Dive Brief:
- Dove has teamed with tennis legend Venus Williams on a Dove x Venus #KeepHerConfident Beauty Bar, the brand’s first-ever limited-edition Dove Beauty Bar collaboration, per a press release. The effort supports the brand’s Body Confident Sport program.
- The commemorative Beauty Bar comes in a tennis ball green color with a passionfruit and lemon balm fragrance and is engraved with the word “Confident.” Though the product isn’t being sold in stores, consumers can enter a giveaway now through Sept. 20 via a microsite.
- Dove additionally will be supporting a series of activities centered around celebrating body confidence, including a tie-up with Black Girls Tennis Club and Bras for Girls. A partnership with Lyft will dole out the Beauty Bar canisters to consumers in New York City.
Dive Insight:
Dove is keeping in line with its brand identity of supporting women’s empowerment with its partnership with tennis star Williams. The push is inspired by 2023 Dove research which found that 45% of girls globally drop out of sports by age 14 — two times the rate of boys — with body confidence being the number one reason. The brand’s limited-edition launch is also meant to help raise awareness of its Body Confident Sport program, a scientifically proven set of coaching tools developed with Nike to build confidence in young girls.
The Dove x Venus #KeepHerConfident Beauty Bar, which is well-timed to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, comes in a limited-edition canister produced from recycled materials, and is completely recyclable, with three Beauty Bars per canister. The effort extends Williams’ existing role as a Dove brand ambassador.
The Beauty Bars are part of a larger effort centered around inspiring confidence in young girls. Dove will team with Black Girls Tennis Club for an in-person tennis experience for middle school girls in New York City that will be hosted by Williams. Additionally, the brand has teamed with Bras for Girls to donate over 1,000 sports bras in support of late elementary to middle school girls, an age at which some girls may choose to stop participating in sports due to discomfort around their bodies, per release details.
For those in the New York City Metro area, Dove has partnered with Lyft to distribute a limited amount of the Beauty Bar canisters. Consumers can keep an eye out for five wrapped Dove x Venus cars in order to obtain one of the packs.
Dove launched the Body Confident Sport initiative alongside Nike, the first time the two have worked together, last fall with the plan to reach 1 million young people globally through the work. The program is part of a much larger mission by the brand to instill self-esteem and body confidence that has also included efforts like its Campaign for Kids Online Safety, which seeks to address the rise in youth mental health issues linked to social media, and an effort that encouraged people to embrace armpit confidence ahead of New York Fashion Week.
CMO Alessandro Manfredi, who spent two decades with parent Unilever, departed the brand in July. The executive played a key role in shaping the personal care brand’s signature “Real Beauty” platform that challenges conventional beauty standards for women and encourages self-confidence.
