‘Social Listening’: Unilever Seeks to Capitalise On Vaseline’s Social Media Breakthrough.

As a product discovered more than 150 years ago within a Pennsylvania drilling site, the simple jar of Vaseline may not seem like an clear candidate for digital platform algorithms.

Yet the brand’s emergence as a TikTok talking point has positioned it at the vanguard of an marketing transformation, where major corporations are allocating substantial funds to content creators and putting fewer resources into marketing items in traditional media.

From Oil Rigs to Online Hacks

First created commercially in the 1870s by chemist Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers rubbing their skin with a derivative of drilling. Today, a spree of amateur-created clips have recorded its extensive utilization in “life hacks”.

Hailed as a fix for dirty sneakers or prolonging the scent of perfume, as well as a fix for squeaky doors. It has even been deployed to prevent the annoyance of crisp flavouring sticking to fingers.

Leveraging the Buzz

Detecting the product’s new life online, marketers at Unilever amplified the hacks by having their research teams evaluate the claims and letting the content creators in on the results.

Claims that Vaseline reduced the sensation of spicy food on lips were confirmed. This was also the case for ideas it could prolong perfume and rejuvenate purses. Proposals that it might whiten teeth or lengthen eyelashes were disproven.

The ‘Digital Ear’ Approach

Print ads and broadcast spots would once have been the cornerstone of its marketing push. But the Vaseline phenomenon has helped convince executives to turbocharge spending on content creators.

This observation of social channels to shape commercial tactics has been labeled “social listening”. Fernando Fernández, freshly instated, has suggested it is aiming to spend half of its colossal advertising budget on digital creator content.

Evolving With Audience Behavior

The company's social media lead, who is spearheading the social media effort, said the company was merely adjusting to novel methods of reaching consumers. She said engaging on social media “without dampening the fun” was essential.

“How do brands authentically become part of the conversation? This has perpetually been our aim as brands, back to when people were hanging out their laundry and sharing usage tips.

“There’s this moving away from a mass communication approach, where we would just send out ads … Currently, it's countless discussions, diverse communities. The evolution of platform algorithms means that these audiences appear specific, however, they are large.

“If you can make sure your brand is shared by other people, talked about by other people, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Creators are critical to that. We are expanding this endorsement system.”

A Seismic Media Shift

The approach indicates seismic changes taking place in media consumption, with the youth demographic devoting greater hours to social media platforms than television, magazines or radio.

This change is evidenced by falling revenues for traditional media advertising. Within the United Kingdom, commercial funding for major broadcasters have declined by over six hundred million pounds in actual value since the end of the last decade.

The Creator Economy Boom

Additionally, it points to a merging of functions as corporations essentially turn into content studios, partnering with hundreds of content creators to enhance their items.

An industry expert from a leading agency said: “Clearly, there is a migration of viewers from conventional channels and their time is increasingly on digital video and image apps than they are watching live TV or reading print.

“Numerous corporations inform us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the personalities they subscribe to compared to commercial messages. That’s a consistent trend.”

He said brands could also save money by focusing on influencers over big traditional media campaigns, which also enables easier content adjustment to see what works.

Such methods are increasing. Marketing investment on influencer marketing is rising at quadruple the rate than total media spending. In the US, it has more than doubled since 2021 and is projected to reach multi-billion dollar sums in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

Despite the huge changes, executives said they believed TV advertising still had a prominent role to play, as broadcasters retained the power to frame public debate.

She added: “Among the most effective advertising investments is still the Super Bowl. It’s not about those broadcasters saying: ‘We are no longer pertinent.’ The focus is on who seizes focus … I think there’s 100% a place for them.”