How We Turned International Women’s Day Into an In-Store Dove Experience
International Women’s Day gave us an opportunity to do more than simply put Dove products in front of shoppers.
The bigger question was: How do we take a global celebration of women and make it feel personal to the woman walking through a Nigerian retail store?
Dove wanted to strengthen its connection with women across Nigeria while driving visibility and sales for its deodorants and lotions. But we knew that achieving this would require more than branded displays and promoters asking shoppers to buy.
We needed to create an experience.
The Challenge
Retail environments are busy.
Shoppers walk in with a list, a budget and somewhere else to be. So, while the campaign needed to improve product visibility and encourage purchase, we also had to find a reason for women to stop, engage with the brand and leave remembering how Dove made them feel.
International Women’s Day gave us that reason.
Rather than treating the occasion as another promotional moment, we wanted every interaction to communicate something simple: Dove sees you, celebrates you and has products designed to support your everyday self-care.
That thinking shaped the entire activation.
Bringing the Idea to Life
We rolled out a multi-week activation across selected modern-trade stores in Nigeria, bringing together product discovery, education, sampling, promotional offers and personalised experiences.
Our trained promoters became an important part of that experience.
Instead of simply pointing shoppers towards products, they introduced women to Dove lotions, roll-ons and antiperspirant sprays, explained their benefits and helped shoppers understand which products could fit into their routines.
Sampling made those conversations even easier.
Women could experience Dove for themselves—the fragrance, the feel of the lotions and the products’ overall appeal before deciding to purchase.
We also introduced a “Buy Two Products and Get One Free Roll-On” offer, giving interested shoppers an additional reason to move from product discovery to purchase.
But for International Women’s Day itself, we wanted to make the interaction more personal.
Customers were welcomed with messages celebrating them and invited to take part in a Dove-branded photo experience. Their pictures were edited with Dove and International Women’s Day elements, turning a regular shopping trip into a small moment of recognition they could take away with them.
Across the participating stores, campaign visibility materials tied everything together, helping Dove stand out consistently at the point of sale.
What Happened Next
The experience did what we hoped it would do: it brought brand engagement and commercial performance together.
Across 32 outlets, the campaign achieved 97.44% of its target, with deodorants—particularly sprays and roll-ons—emerging as the strongest-performing categories.
But the numbers told only part of the story.
The conversations happening in-store also gave us a clearer picture of what consumers valued about Dove. Shoppers repeatedly responded to the fragrance of the products, their sweat-protection benefits and the mild feel of Dove lotions.
These were no longer just product claims on a shelf. They were benefits consumers were experiencing and talking about themselves.
More Than an IWD Activation
For us, the success of the campaign was in finding the balance between selling and connecting.
We created product visibility, encouraged trial and supported conversion.
But we also gave women a reason to pause, interact with Dove and feel recognised during a celebration centred around them.
By combining retail visibility, product education, sampling, promotional incentives and a simple emotional experience, we helped Dove turn International Women’s Day from a calendar moment into a meaningful consumer touchpoint.
And sometimes, that is what great retail activation should do: make the product easy to discover, but make the experience difficult to forget.
