Phone camera view of a smiling woman with long wavy hair in a floral mini dress posing before an orange tree, "PHOTO" mode
Submitted by Billion Dollar BoyAgency IPI Score 83/100

Dove #ShareTheFirst Creator Movement

Influencer Marketing

Billion Dollar Boy built the creator-driven #ShareTheFirst movement for Dove, encouraging women to post the first photo they took, and the agency reports 1B+ impressions.

1B+Impressions
120M+Video Views

Case in 60 seconds

Dove wanted to help women feel confident on social media, which the page describes as an environment that can easily become a minefield for body image, so the brand had to act inside the very space causing the pressure.

The campaign turns on the gap between the photo a woman takes and the photo she posts, because the page describes women trapped in a cycle of social perfection where retakes and silence replace sharing.

#ShareTheFirst celebrated the photos that repeatedly get discarded for not being the one, asking women to share the first photo they took because real beauty does not need a retake.

Creator Lucy Reeves helped test and shape the influencer brief, Bebe Rexha shared her first photos, and 111 global influencers, including Rania Mavromara and Naomi Boateng, amplified the movement, which then ran beyond social through 64 Digital OOH placements featuring creators.

Billion Dollar Boy reports 1B+ impressions and 120m+ video views, and the agency states that 89% of girls said the campaign boosted self-esteem, although the page does not say how that figure was gathered.

Strategy Breakdown

Women under pressure to present a perfect version of themselves online, with the page also reporting a self-esteem result among girls.
The page describes a cycle of social perfection in which women feel constant pressure to present a perfect version of themselves online, so the campaign set itself against digital perfectionism rather than against any competitor.
The page casts Dove as a long-standing champion of real beauty, so the brand role was to give women permission to post an unretouched moment rather than to sell a product benefit.
The page frames retaking and discarding photos as engrained behaviour, which made the first photo a simple and repeatable act of rebellion that any woman could perform on her own feed.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Other

Partners

  • Billion Dollar Boy

Participation mechanic

  • Women were encouraged to rebel against ingrained behaviour by sharing the first photo they took, tagged #ShareTheFirst, rather than selecting one from many retakes.

Creator role

  • Rania Mavromara
  • Naomi Boateng
  • Lucy Reeves — creator
  • Bebe Rexha

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Impressions1B+ impressions
Video Views120M+ video views
Girls Citing Self-Esteem Boost89% of girls
Influencers111 global influencers
Digital OOH Placements64 Digital OOH placements

Why Billion Dollar Boy's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A behaviour the audience already performs privately can become the participation mechanic itself, so posting the first photo carries the brand message rather than merely responding to an advertisement about it.

  2. 2

    Testing the influencer brief with a creator before rollout, as the page says happened with Lucy Reeves, lets the brief sound native to the platform rather than written by the brand.

  3. 3

    Pairing a single celebrity first photo with a large influencer roster gives the movement a visible permission signal at the top while the wider roster carries volume across markets.

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