Observed Signal · Jun 29, 2026 · Strategy Update · Source: The Drum · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Unilever Makes Creators Central to Marketing Strategy
Unilever is restructuring its marketing approach to put online creators at the centre of campaign development rather than treating influencers as post‑production amplifiers. The company — which runs a roughly $9bn marketing operation and has earmarked about 50% of media budgets for creator‑led marketing — is asking agency partners to collaborate with creators from the brief stage. Examples include the Arsenal 'Part of the Game' campaign (MullenLowe) that was reshaped after creators pushed back on the original idea. Unilever says it has grown its creator roster from ~10,000 to ~300,000, is testing outcome‑based creator pay (percentage of sales), and is using an “agentic solution” (AI) to surface user‑generated video content. The company reports creator campaigns delivering up to 17% gains and as much as four‑times view‑through rates when done well.
Major global advertiser (Unilever) is reallocating a large portion of its $9bn marketing spend (~50% of media budgets) to creator‑led marketing, scaling creator relationships to ~300k and testing new compensation models and AI tools — changes that affect agency processes, media planning and creator economies across the industry.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Unilever is shifting to a creator‑first model and has earmarked ~50% of media budgets for creator‑led marketing.
- Unilever’s marketing operation is described as a $9bn machine.
- Unilever expanded its creator roster from roughly 10,000 (two years ago) to about 300,000 today.
- Unilever developed an AI 'agentic solution' to find user‑generated content (analyze videos without explicit tags or text mentions).
- MullenLowe’s 'Part of the Game' campaign with Arsenal Football Club was reshaped after input from creators and won a Bronze Lion for Print in 2025.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mapped“For Unilever, this anecdote has become a useful proof point for a bigger change it is trying to drive through its $9bn marketing machine....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Inside Unilever's 300,000-Creator Network
Unilever says it maintains an active global network of approximately 300,000 creators and has leaned into creators as a core part of its marketing strategy, a shift recently referenced by CEO Fernando Fernández on an earnings call. The company used roughly 50,000 creators during the World Cup, which Unilever said reached a combined audience of more than 600 million. Digiday’s reporting and interviews with Unilever and agency executives describe the program as managed via in-house teams, agency partnerships and experiential programs, and note that years of prior investment in creator-first marketing enabled the recent scale. Agency leaders warn the scale requires major operational investment and heavy automation, which can increase efficiency but risks repetitive sourcing, creative homogenization, and missed emergent talent.
Unilever Doubles Down on Social and Creators
Unilever has shifted a large portion of its marketing mix toward social and creator-driven marketing. Eighteen months ago CEO Fernando Fernandez pledged to allocate 50% of the company’s $9 billion ad budget to social and to work with 20x more creators. Unilever CMO Leandro Barreto, speaking at an Adweek press event, said the pace and extent of the shift varies by brand and business group, and that the company still spends about $4.5 billion on broad-reach channels such as TV. Barreto — appointed in January — defended the strategy amid external criticism and expressed internal conviction in the direction.
Unilever Automates Creator Operations at 300,000 Scale
Unilever has expanded its creator marketing program from about 10,000 to 300,000 creators and is increasingly automating administrative and vetting tasks while keeping relationship and creative decisions human-led. At a Cannes Lions roundtable, Leandro Barreto (CMO, Unilever beauty & wellbeing) described using systems to discover and vet creators across 190 countries. The company uses automated tools—including AI agents—to scan social videos, surface positive user stories, perform brand-safety checks and standardize paperwork so internal teams can focus on strategy and creativity. Agency and industry voices warn that heavy automation can produce unimaginative content and that brand‑creator relationships still require human oversight. The article cites rising influencer-marketing spend forecasts and growing campaign sizes as drivers of automation adoption.
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