Dove × Crumbl: How a Cookie Chain Sold 3x More Body Wash
Dove turned Crumbl's rotating cookie flavors into a limited-edition body care line — driving 3.2B+ social impressions and a 3x online sales lift, then bringing it back a year later.
The partnership at a glance
Dove, Unilever's flagship personal care brand, partnered with viral bakery chain Crumbl to launch a limited-edition line of dessert-scented body care products — body wash, scrub, deodorant and hand soap — inspired by Crumbl's rotating weekly cookie flavors.
The first drop landed in December 2024 with Confetti Cake, Lemon Glaze and Strawberry Crumb Cake. The collection launched exclusively on Walmart.com before expanding into stores. In December 2025 the partnership returned for a second annual drop, adding Tres Leches and an expanded product format in Dove Beauty Bars.
Category and timeline
- Category: Personal care × bakery/dessert (CPG co-marketing)
- First drop: December 2024
- Second drop: December 2025 (annual return)
- Distribution: Walmart.com exclusive, then retail
The results
- 3.2B+ social impressions across the 2025 drop
- 101M+ social video views from the 2024 drop
- 3x+ online sales lift versus baseline
Why it worked
Three things make this a textbook cross-category activation. First, the pairing is clean: beauty and food share a sensory language — scent, texture, indulgence — without competing for the same shelf. Second, the retailer-exclusive model concentrated demand into a single destination, turning scarcity into urgency and giving Walmart a reason to merchandise the launch hard. Third, Crumbl's weekly flavor-drop mechanic gave Dove a ready-made content cadence instead of a one-off announcement.
The strongest signal is the repeat. Brands do not run an annual return on a collaboration that underperformed. A confirmed second drop, with expanded SKUs, is the clearest evidence a partnership cleared its internal bar.
What partnership teams should take from it
- Cross-category pairings work when the sensory or emotional overlap is obvious to a shopper in two seconds.
- A retailer exclusive is leverage: it buys merchandising support that paid media cannot.
- Design collaborations to be repeatable. A platform beats a stunt.
Sources
Unilever newsroom; PR Newswire; WWD; Billboard (December 2024 – January 2026). Figures are as officially disclosed or reported by named outlets and have not been independently audited.
Last updated September 5, 2026.