Chatelaine readers will literally flip over its May issue. The Rogers Publishing title has created an editorial package in collaboration with Unilever Canada’s Dove brand highlighted by a unique flip cover and a six-page editorial feature.
The initiative stems from an extensive 2013 study by Unilever that found 82% of women are “camera shy,” either hiding from or feeling self-conscious in front of the camera.
The inside feature is bookended by full-page ads for Dove’s Go Sleeveless and Advanced Hair Series products, but features no other involvement by the brand other than a reference to the study in the introduction and callouts from the study—such as less than one in 20 women love the way they look in all pictures, and over 90% of women don’t believe they’re beautiful—peppered throughout the content.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 4,000 women in eight countries including Canada, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Brazil.
The centrepiece of the partnership is a unique flip cover. One side features the Chatelaine logo above an image of a picture frame surrounding the message “Celebrate your beautiful self,” while flipping the cover over reveals a standard Chatelaine cover.
The cover remains editorially sacrosanct, said Chatelaine editor-in-chief Karine Ewart, with Dove having no involvement in the final product. “We just wanted to highlight the editorial that’s inside because we believe so strongly in this messaging,” she said.
“We are constantly looking for innovative partnerships, but also aligning ourselves with our clients that we believe have similar messages,” she said. “That’s why this worked really well with Dove.
“This was a true partnership in the sense that we worked with Dove, liked their message, and came up with a complementary campaign that they supported.”
Sharon MacLeod, Unilever’s North American vice-president, personal care products, said the Dove survey found that being photographed is a major source of anxiety for women, with some even destroying photos of themselves taken at major events.
As part of its ongoing discussions with Chatelaine, Dove outlined its objectives for making Canadian women “camera proud” and developed the idea of inviting them to participate in the “Camera Shy Challenge,” asking them to post natural and un-retouched photos of themselves on its website. The magazine received more than 1,300 submissions, and used 10 of those pictures and stories in the editorial package.
“We’re all perfectly aligned behind this idea of saying goodbye to being camera-shy,” said MacLeod. “We are in the business of helping women see beauty as a source of happiness, not a source of anxiety.”
Disclosure: Rogers Publishing also owns Marketing and MarketingMag.ca.
