Without spending a cent on paid advertising, Dove’s web-based Evolution spot generated three times more traffic than it’s successful 2006 Super Bowl spot.

The Super Bowl spot, featuring girls expressing doubts about their appearance, was part of a larger campaign celebrating the notion that feminine beauty is not defined by pubescent cover girls and runway model anorexics. The campaign generated enormous secondary media exposure in the form of editorial content in magazines, newspapers and television.

Evolution extends that theme with a time-lapse sequence in which cosmetics and photo retouching transform an ordinary woman into an iconic beauty model. The 75 second piece ends with the words: "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted."

The explosive success of this new iteration of the Campaign for Real Beauty appears to be equal parts high concept, PR blitz and momentum. It may also have benefited from the establishment of minimum weight:height ratios for models at recent european fashion shows.

Absent from that list is an expense line for paid media.

Unilever VP-North American skin care Todd Tillemans told Ad Age the Campaign for Real Beauty is building brand loyalty: In the past year Dove gained market share in four of its five major categories; compared to three years ago the number of brand sales to individuals purchasing more than one product has doubled.

Lisa Klauser, Unilever VP-marketing shared services, said:

Because we’re out to influence pop culture you see our brands taking very distinctive points of view. … Dove has taken a stand that real beauty comes in all sizes, shapes and colors, that real beauty can be very stunning, and that there are a lot of beauty myths out there that perpetuate low self-esteem.

In a market driven by You’re Not Good Enough messages, the Campaign for Real Beauty is an oasis. It’s also a triumph of great storytelling where success is measured by the right story told the right way at the right time.

Which serves as a call for all of us to re-examine our brand stories and how we communicate them. If our ideal audience can’t find us, we may be telling the wrong story. Or telling the right story poorly from the hearers’ perspective. Or we may be trying to tell a good story too soon or – perhaps worse – too late to engage the audience we want.

What if it turned out that the best way to communicate with our present and potential customers was simpler, more honest and less expensive than what we’ve been doing?