How is a Giant Marketer Like Unilever Going to Spend Half of Its Media Budget on Creators?

Next in Media talked to Selina Sykes, Global Marketing Transformation Leader for Beauty and Wellbeing at Unilever, about the company's ambitious goal to allocate half of its media budget to creators. The conversation explored how a legacy CPG giant is reimagining its marketing model to stay relevant in a social-first world.

Sykes discussed Unilever's shift from traditional broadcast advertising to a "many-to-many" model that harnesses communities and creators. She shared insights on building authentic creator partnerships, the success of campaigns like Vaseline Verified, and how AI is being integrated into their content supply chain. The conversation also covered social commerce opportunities, the balance between scaled operations and authentic creator relationships, and the future of AI-driven shopping experiences.

Join us for this insightful discussion on how traditional brands can successfully navigate the creator economy while maintaining authenticity at scale.

🔖Chapters:

[00:01:18] Introduction and Selina's Role at Unilever

[00:03:02] Staying Relevant in Beauty's Fast-Moving Landscape

[00:06:30] The Decision to Spend Half Media Budget on Creators

[00:08:29] Executing Creator Partnerships at Scale

[00:12:45] Case Study: Vaseline Verified Campaign Success

[00:15:24] Social Commerce and TikTok Shop Strategy

[00:18:18] AI Integration in Content Creation and Media

[00:21:53] The Future of AI Shopping Agents

💡Takeaways:

🎯 Unilever is shifting from "one-to-many" broadcast to "many-to-many" creator-driven marketing to stay culturally relevant

📊 The company aims to allocate exactly 50% of its media budget to creator partnerships and content

🤝 Creator relationships range from long-term "co-founder" collaborations to scaled content partnerships with smaller creators

✨ The Vaseline Verified campaign leveraged 3.5 million organic brand mentions, working with creators to scientifically verify popular "hacks"

🛒 Social commerce is viewed as a key channel, with emphasis on affiliate programs and shoppable content experiences

🤖 AI is being integrated across the marketing ecosystem through "AI studios" in each market, focusing on human-AI collaboration

🎨 Quality control remains paramount - AI augments human creativity rather than replacing human oversight

🛍️ AI shopping agents are expected to become a new channel complementing rather than replacing existing shopping experiences

🔄 The creator economy allows brands to tap into authentic community conversations that were previously happening without brand involvement

🌟 Success requires balancing brand authenticity with the need to operate at Unilever's massive scale

Follow Silena Sykes: https://linkedin.com/in/selina-sykes-0619b62b?originalSubdomain=uk 
Unilever: https://unilever.com