‘Digital Eavesdropping’: Unilever Aims to Harness Vaseline’s TikTok Moment.

First identified over 150 years ago on a Pennsylvania oilfield, the simple jar of Vaseline may not seem like an obvious target for social media algorithms.

Nonetheless, its ascent as a viral TikTok topic has positioned it at the vanguard of an advertising revolution, seeing big businesses investing heavily in content creators and putting fewer resources into advertising goods in traditional media.

A Journey from Drilling to Digital

First created commercially in the 1870s by a chemist, Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers applying to their skin with a residue from oil extraction. Today, a spree of user-generated videos have documented the product’s widespread use in “practical tricks”.

Promoted as a remedy for cleaning shoes or extending perfume longevity, along with a cure for squeaky doors. It has even been deployed to combat the nuisance of chip seasoning clinging to fingers.

Leveraging the Buzz

Spotting its digital renaissance, marketers at Unilever enhanced the tricks by having their research teams evaluate the claims and letting the content creators in on the results.

Suggestions that it lessened the sting of chili on the mouth were given the thumbs up. So too were ideas it could extend fragrance and rejuvenate purses. Suggestions it could whiten teeth or lengthen eyelashes were refuted.

The ‘Digital Ear’ Approach

Billboards and TV ads would once have been the cornerstone of its marketing push. But the Vaseline phenomenon has persuaded leaders to dramatically increase investment in content creators.

This monitoring of online platforms to guide corporate planning has been labeled “social listening”. Fernando Fernández, freshly instated, has stated the intention is to spend half of its colossal advertising budget on digital creator content.

Evolving With Audience Behavior

Selina Sykes, who is spearheading the social media effort, said the company was simply adapting to new ways of engaging audiences. She said participating on platforms “without spoiling the atmosphere” was paramount.

“How can companies join discussions credibly? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, since the era of community gossip and discussing household products.

“We are witnessing a departure from a one-to-many model, where we would just broadcast out … Now it’s many conversations, diverse communities. The shift of the algorithms means that these groups seem specialized, however, they are large.

“Ensuring your product is discussed by other people, talked about by other people, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Influencers are vital for this. We’re really scaling this advocacy model.”

A Seismic Media Shift

This plan mirrors dramatic transformations happening in audience habits, with the youth demographic spending more time on digital networks than traditional TV, print, or radio.

The shift is reflected in falling revenues for broadcast and newspaper ads. In the UK, commercial funding for primary networks have fallen by more than £600m in inflation-adjusted terms since 2019.

The Rise of the Creator Economy

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

Leon Harlow said: “Naturally, an exodus of attention out of certain traditional media outlets and their time is increasingly on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are consuming linear broadcasts or printed matter.

“A lot of brands are telling us audiences believe endorsements from the creators they engage with compared to commercial messages. This is a persistent pattern.”

He said brands could also save money by investing in creators over big traditional media campaigns, which also permits simpler message refinement to see what works.

This strategy is expanding. Promotional expenditure on influencer marketing is growing fourfold quicker than total media spending. Across the United States, it has over doubled since 2021 and is expected to hit multi-billion dollar sums in 2025.

The Enduring Power of Broadcast

Despite the huge changes, executives said they believed broadcast ads retained significant importance to play, as networks still held the capability to drive countrywide discourse.

Sykes said: “A top-tier ROI marketing event is still major broadcast spectacles. It's not a matter of networks declaring: ‘We are no longer pertinent.’ The focus is on who seizes focus … There is undoubtedly a future for traditional media.”