Dove is back and so am I

Back in my last blogging gig at The Globe and Mail, I wrote about Dove's "Evolution" more than any other spot. And with good reason. It is arguably the greatest ad every made in this country, winning the Grand Prix in both the film and Internet categories at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Ogilvy & Mather's Toronto office has just released the long-awaited follow-up to Evolution. It's called "Onslaught."




First let me say that while my last blog was about marketing with a heavy slant on advertising, this one is not. This blog is about social media tools like Facebook and YouTube and blogs themselves -- and how marketers can use them to connect and engage their most fervent supporters.

But Evolution is as good a place as any to transition. Before Unilever spent a penny to buy advertising time, the ad was viewed more than four million times on YouTube. It was a huge viral success story, an early indication for many marketers that the social media had forever changed the marketing communications landscape.

This was the kind work that inspired me to leave my comfortable job as the Globe's marketing reporter to take on a new challenge -- to help brands and organizations figure out how to navigate and thrive in this new world.