‘Online Monitoring’: Unilever Aims to Harness Vaseline’s Viral TikTok Trend.

As a product discovered over 150 years ago in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, the humble pot of Vaseline might not appear as an clear candidate for digital platform algorithms.

However, its rise as a viral TikTok topic has positioned it at the vanguard of an marketing transformation, seeing big businesses spending big on content creators and putting fewer resources into advertising goods in legacy broadcasters.

A Journey from Drilling to Digital

The petroleum jelly was first manufactured in the 1870s by scientist Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers rubbing their skin with a residue from oil extraction. Currently, a wave of user-generated videos have documented the product’s widespread use in “practical tricks”.

It has been touted as a remedy for cleaning shoes or making fragrance last longer, and also a remedy for creaky hinges. Users have even applied it to prevent the annoyance of crisp flavouring sticking to fingers.

Harnessing the Hype

Spotting its digital renaissance, strategists within the corporation enhanced the tricks by tasking their in-house experts with verification and sharing the findings with influencers.

Claims that Vaseline reduced the sensation of spicy food on lips were given the thumbs up. This was also the case for ideas it could prolong perfume and revive leather bags. Suggestions it could whiten teeth or lengthen eyelashes were debunked.

The ‘Digital Ear’ Approach

Outdoor advertising and television commercials would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. Yet this viral episode has helped convince executives to dramatically increase investment in content creators.

This observation of social channels to shape commercial tactics has been labeled “social listening”. Unilever's CEO, freshly instated, has suggested it is aiming to spend 50% of its massive marketing spend on social media content.

Adapting to New Consumer Habits

The company's social media lead, who is leading the online push, said the company was merely adjusting to novel methods of reaching consumers. She said participating on platforms “without dampening the fun” was crucial.

“What is the key to genuine brand integration? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, back to when people were hanging out their laundry and talking about what they used.

“The trend is shifting from a mass communication approach, where we would just send out ads … Now it’s many conversations, many communities. The shift of the algorithms means that these audiences appear specific, however, they are large.

“Having your brand advocated by other people, recommended by peers, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Content makers are key. We’re really scaling this advocacy model.”

A Revolutionary Change in Media

The strategy reflects dramatic transformations happening in audience habits, with the youth demographic devoting greater hours to apps like TikTok and Instagram than legacy broadcast and print media.

The shift is reflected in declines in broadcast and newspaper ads. In the UK, commercial funding for leading TV channels have declined by over six hundred million pounds in actual value since the end of the last decade.

The Rise of the Creator Economy

It also reflects a media convergence as large companies almost become production houses themselves, linking up with numerous influencers to boost their products.

Leon Harlow said: “Obviously there’s a flow of audiences from conventional channels and they are dedicating far more hours to social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are consuming linear broadcasts or printed matter.

“Numerous corporations inform us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the individuals they follow more than they trust ads. It's an ongoing shift.”

He noted companies can reduce costs by focusing on influencers over large-scale legacy ad buys, which also permits simpler message refinement to see what works.

The approach is growing. Advertising spending on the creator economy is rising at quadruple the rate than the broader media sector. Across the United States, it has over doubled since 2021 and is forecast to attain tens of billions in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

Even with this transformation, experts said they believed TV advertising still had a prominent role to play, as TV channels continued to possess the influence to shape the national conversation.

Sykes said: “One of the highest return-on-investment media opportunities is still events like the Super Bowl. It’s not about those broadcasters saying: ‘Oh, we’re not relevant any more.’ It’s about who’s capturing attention … I believe there is absolutely a role for them.”