How The Body Shop Wrote a Self-love Anthem Using Employee Voices

Did you know that nearly 1 in 2 people feel more self-doubt than self-love? Partnering with the market research leader Ipsos, the cosmetics company The Body Shop conducted a survey to find out how people around the world rate their self-worth, happiness, and wellbeing. The results they discovered were shocking and heart-breaking, revealing a self-love crisis that needed to be addressed. In a podcast with the Managing Director of Woodreed Jo Moffatt, The Body Shop’s Global Internal Engagement, Campaigns and Communications Specialist Anaïs Nebel discussed the results of the Self Love Index and how the company set out to unify people. Using music to promote self-love According to Nebel, the survey’s findings reaffirmed how vital it is for businesses – especially those in the beauty industry – to talk about and promote self-love. With this in mind, The Body Shop decided to launch a self-love campaign and do something that had never been done before. Explaining how she came up with the idea to write and produce a self-love anthem, Nebel shared: “I thought, what if we created a song that was designed to empower you through its lyrics and melody? What if you had a song that truly resonated with you, so that the more you listened to it, the more empowered you’d feel?”  Taking the first step to create its anthem, The Body Shop sent out a survey to employees, asking them three questions relating to self-love and empowerment. After receiving their responses, the team behind the campaign found the common themes and used them as inspiration for the song’s lyrics. Some of these themes included the feeling of not being enough, being proud of overcoming illnesses and wanting to move away from negative body images.  It is interesting to note that the self-love anthem featured people’s answers word-for-word and even included real voice messages sent by employees from around the world. Discussing people’s reactions to this, Nebel revealed that some employees had tears in their eyes as they recognised their words in the song’s lyrics and heard the voices of their colleagues.  When asked what advice The Body Shop could give to other businesses who wish to make a difference, Nebel responded: “It’s about understanding what your community needs and is looking for, genuinely listening to them and then taking a risk because good ideas are always crazy until they’re not.” Thanks to this campaign, The Body Shop was a highly commended finalist in the Engage Awards’ Best Use of Innovation in Employee Engagement category.