#Sharetheload – DPG’s cross-media campaign for P&G
Our first egtabite after the summer months features a creative case from DPG Media (former Medialaan in Belgium), who managed to leverage the synergy of a newly created cross-media, client-centric structure (a special creative and branded content department) illustrating perfectly how TV can accelerate the success of a content campaign.
The Belgian sales house successfully launched a cross-media branded content campaign, while at the same time raising awareness around the topic of gender equality – providing great brand visibility for their client P&G.
A client-centric approach
The innovative campaign came amid a period of structural changes for the sales house. DPG Media officially launched in May 2019, following the acquisition of the TV sales house Medialaan by the press group De Persgroep Publishing. This resulted in a unique portfolio of publishing, online media, audiovisual media and online services, which allowed DPG Media to have a client-centric structure at its core with a focus on cross-media and video.
The creative sales department within this new structure, consisting of a team of content strategists, content creators and account managers was thus ideally placed to create a campaign around the topic of gender equality to amplify P&G’s recent #sharetheload campaign.
Sharing the load
The campaign was conducted in close collaboration with strategic professionals from the client’s creative and media agency. It ran in three phrases, from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day (May to June), with a highlight in the middle of the campaign around the Champions League.
The first phase of the campaign called Don’t be a Douchebag was non-branded. It consisted of getting the conversation started about workload balance and gender (in)equality in Belgian households, through content in various newspapers, magazines and on radio stations of the DPG Media group. The conversation trigger was the result of an IPSOS survey, conducted among 1007 Belgians to find out how the distribution in household chores was perceived. The initiative proved so successful that even competing radio stations discussed this hot societal topic. A true success in terms of “earned media” coverage.
During the second phase of the campaign, DPG Media ran P&G’s global #sharetheload ad (in Belgium the brand they chose to feature in that campaign was the washing powder Dash) during the Champions league, the major football event, using various creatives in trailers to promote modern family roles, embracing the spirit of football , i.e. team work, supporter´s enthusiasm etc.
The third phase of the campaign, called Be This Guy, aimed at bringing the editorial part together with the brand. It featured new Dash ads promoting modern, slightly reversed family roles, in a topical format around Father’s Day, as well as other creative formats. For instance, Nina – a popular Flemish women’s magazine – featured a special top to tail cover page, with a very well-known Belgian couple: the woman was on the cover of the magazine and the man on the reversed cover on the other side of the magazine.
Future initiatives
Due to the great success of the cross-media campaign on the Belgian market, DPG Media plans on expanding it in other media. They will continue this campaign on social media with their in-house influencers’ agency. The ongoing phase of the campaign, named Dad Heroes, will show – alongside the Dad Solutions campaign – what it means to Be This Guy and adopt a modern role of fatherhood.