🔗 Share this article

First identified more than 150 years ago on a Pennsylvania oilfield, the humble pot of Vaseline could hardly be considered an clear candidate for digital platform algorithms.

However, its rise as a viral TikTok topic has placed it at the forefront of an promotional upheaval, seeing big businesses investing heavily in content creators and reducing expenditure on promoting products in legacy broadcasters.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

The petroleum jelly was first manufactured in the 1870s by chemist Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers using on their skin with a derivative of drilling. Currently, a wave of user-generated videos have chronicled its broad application in “everyday tips”.

It has been touted as a remedy for cleaning shoes or prolonging the scent of perfume, as well as a fix for noisy doorways. It has even been deployed to stop the scourge of snack dust adhering to hands.

Harnessing the Hype

Noticing its viral resurgence, marketers at Unilever boosted the tips by asking their own scientists to test them and sharing the findings with influencers.

Assertions that it diminished the sting of chili on the mouth were given the thumbs up. Similarly supported were ideas it could lengthen scent duration and revive leather bags. Proposals that it might bleach teeth or lengthen eyelashes were refuted.

The ‘Social Listening’ Strategy

Outdoor advertising and television commercials would once have been the cornerstone of its marketing push. Yet this viral episode has persuaded leaders to ramp up funding for content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to guide corporate planning has been labeled “social listening”. Unilever's CEO, recently appointed, has stated the intention is to spend a full fifty percent of its huge ad budget on platform-based material.

Adapting to New Consumer Habits

The company's social media lead, who is heading the digital initiative, said the company was merely adjusting to novel methods of connecting with customers. She said interacting online “without spoiling the atmosphere” was essential.

“What is the key to genuine brand integration? This remains our core objective as brands, since the era of community gossip and discussing household products.

“There’s this moving away from a one-to-many model, where we would just broadcast out … Currently, it's countless discussions, various groups. The evolution of platform algorithms means that these groups seem specialized, but they’re not.

“If you can make sure your brand is shared by other people, mentioned by individuals, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Creators are critical to that. This word-of-mouth strategy is being amplified.”

A Seismic Media Shift

The strategy reflects seismic changes occurring in how media is consumed, with younger consumers allocating more attention to social media platforms than legacy broadcast and print media.

The transition is visible in falling revenues for traditional media advertising. In the UK, commercial funding for primary networks have fallen by more than £600m in real terms since 2019.

The Rise of the Creator Economy

This further signifies a blurring of media roles as brands effectively act as media producers, linking up with hundreds of content creators to enhance their items.

A commercial director at a major talent agency said: “Obviously there’s a flow of audiences away from some legacy media and their time is increasingly on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are watching live TV or reading print.

“A lot of brands are telling us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the personalities they subscribe to compared to commercial messages. This is a persistent pattern.”

He added firms may also cut expenditures by investing in creators over big traditional media campaigns, which also permits simpler message refinement to gauge performance.

This strategy is expanding. Marketing investment on digital creator partnerships is rising at quadruple the rate than the broader media sector. Stateside, it has more than doubled since 2021 and is projected to reach tens of billions in 2025.

TV's Lasting Role

Even with this transformation, executives said they believed TV advertising still had a prominent role to play, as broadcasters retained the power to drive countrywide discourse.

She added: “One of the highest return-on-investment media opportunities is still the Super Bowl. The issue isn't broadcasters claiming: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ It’s about who’s capturing attention … I think there’s 100% a place for them.”