Dove: Ogilvy UK wins again for ‘relentless reinvention’

THE WINNER of the 2025 Creative Strategy Grand Prix is Ogilvy UK for Dove’s ‘Real Beauty, how a soap brand created a global self-esteem movement’.

Jury President Pats McDonald, global chief strategy officer, Dentsu Creative, Global said: “When you get a group of strategists together in a room, you might expect disagreements. But it was hard to argue about a campaign that has written the playbook on modern strategy for the last 20 years.”

McDonald said Dove took “the simple, devastating insight that just 2% of women see themselves as beautiful and transformed beauty into a source of confidence. The campaign relentlessly reinvents itself for every generation and every shift in culture, all while embracing tech. It also open-sources its playbook for the rest of the industry.”

Jury President Pats McDonald

The impact of the campaign goes well beyond purpose, having also driven the brand to spectacular heights. Today it is a $7.5bn brand active across 10 product categories. McDonald talked about the importance of the Creative Strategy category, which received a record-breaking 902 entries this year: “When facing so much uncertainty and change, it is important to stop and find the best strategy in work, because that is going to take us forward with con- fidence and optimism.”

The Jury awarded five Gold Lions to campaigns from the UAE, Japan, France, Colom- bia and Brazil. Discussing criteria, McDonald said they were looking for entries that “know the audience and know algorithms, that embrace AI as a partner in joyful and provocative work with extraordinary ambition for what creative strategy can do. We wanted work that makes us optimistic about the future of the industry.”