Vaseline was based greater than 150 years in the past and has became a prime performer of late for father or mother firm Unilever, having seen an 11% compounded annual development fee over the past 4 years, turning into a billion greenback model and rising quantity greater than 10% in each 2024 and the primary half of 2025. The model additionally serves as a template for the CPG big’s portfolio.
“It has been on a outstanding journey, pioneering the type of need at scale pondering we wish now to duplicate throughout all our manufacturers,” mentioned CEO Fernando Fernandez on Unilever’s Q2 2025 earnings name.
Executives attribute Vaseline’s renewal to a mix of product innovation that faucets into tendencies in a reworking physique care house and powerful advertising and marketing that follows Unilever’s intensifying concentrate on social-first and culturally-rooted efforts. The model inserting itself into TikTok tendencies round nighttime routines, is one latest instance.
“We reallocated our funds to lean far more into creator-led content material, as Unilever calls it, leaning extra into creators, influencers, [user-generated content] to inform the model story a bit extra, versus solely being led by the model,” mentioned Kate Godbout, head of Vaseline model for North America.
Vaseline earlier this month teamed with actuality TV star Amanda Batula and her Loverboy beverage model, bringing collectively packs that included three cans of Loverboy iced tea and one bottle of Vaseline’s Glazed & Glisten Gel Oils. The manufacturers marketed the partnership with an experiential occasion in Brooklyn and noticed the packs promote out inside 12 hours of launch.
“Particularly for a heritage model, the thought of cultivating neighborhood is so essential,” Godbout mentioned. “Deeply understanding your client on essentially the most intimate stage — their hopes, desires, wishes, limitations to utilizing product — past primary wants… actually understanding their ardour factors, determining how one can faucet into that and offering actual utility of their lives.”
Godbout joined Unilever in July after three years as CMO for Scholl’s Wellness Firm and former stints with L’Oréal, Neutrogena and Mattel. Advertising Dive spoke with the manager concerning the evolution of the advertising and marketing group, the award-winning “Vaseline Verified” marketing campaign and the way synthetic intelligence will change how entrepreneurs work.
The next interview has been edited for readability and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: How has Unilever introduced collectively innovation and advertising and marketing within the group?
KATE GODBOUT: Earlier this yr, there was a structural change within the magnificence and wellness group the place we introduced collectively end-to-end advertising and marketing. There’s one half of my crew that is targeted on product innovation and portfolio technique, however the fantastic thing about it’s they’re very carefully working alongside our demand-creation crew. We have introduced specialists in who deeply perceive PR, influencer, creator-led content material, media technique, extra conventional promoting inventive and dealing with companies.
We now have each side of the home collectively as one, so we’re assembly weekly as a crew in a discussion board we name the “tradition squad,” the place we have now the innovation crew sitting alongside our companies and the demand creation groups to speak concerning the alerts which are occurring in tradition and issues which are getting numerous traction for the model because it pertains to our social content material. These conferences are supposed to be very motion oriented.
However then we even have richer conversations about construct social-first improvements. How can we take all this nice stuff we’re studying in tradition, all of the issues that buyers are actually connecting with, after which feed that into the innovation funnel to assist inform the names of the merchandise, the textures or the codecs, what sort of content material technique we need to construct, how we need to carry it to life digitally and in-store.
Unilever had the instinct to be sure you have the appropriate individuals at and across the desk to have these conversations and your company experience embedded into these conversations on a weekly foundation. Typically I ponder if we ought to be doing it greater than as soon as every week, as a result of tradition strikes so quick. Nevertheless it’s a extremely nice framework to have rather than ensuring that alerts are being learn and the dots are being linked.
The “Vaseline Verified” marketing campaign is an effective instance of a social-first effort. What are you able to inform me about the way it got here collectively?
We noticed that there have been over three and a half million natural posts occurring within the social house, primarily on TikTok, however positively on Instagram as effectively, the place individuals have been utilizing Vaseline for very sudden functions, in addition to anticipated functions. There was this superb versatility of the product being showcased.
We additionally tapped into the perception that buyers are overwhelmed and bombarded with data on social, and so they’re having a extremely exhausting time discriminating what’s actual, what’s protected and what’s efficient versus what’s simply hype.
We took this neighborhood motion of individuals speaking about the usage of product, and really introduced it into the labs the place the science turned a part of the story. It was playful, enjoyable and quirky, however we examined all of those superb hacks that buyers had for Vaseline jelly within the lab, and both confirm that they’re protected and efficient to make use of the product for, or they don’t seem to be efficient in any respect.
We awarded these creator seals. We received them concerned within the dialog. We pushed out our personal content material on different “Verified” hacks of what we have already examined that the product might be used for.
It showcased a unique character of Vaseline as a model. It allowed these creators into the dialog to co-create the model. And there have been actual, quantifiable outcomes tied to it: we had a 43% uplift in our gross sales, over 136 million views and large optimistic sentiment of 87% with shoppers.
As social-first funding will increase, how are you measuring the channel?
We now have a system in place the place we observe metrics like buzz, sentiment, shares and on-line discoverability. We observe that on a quarterly foundation. How can we transfer the needle on these metrics as we design campaigns? There’s numerous inside dialogue on make the marketing campaign stronger.
We have surrounded ourselves with actually robust company companions which are tremendous inventive and take into consideration that unlock. You get the superb mind energy of all these individuals which are it from completely different angles … to actually assist you to mildew and form the marketing campaign with numerous nice, inventive minds all coming along with the identical frequent, aligned objective.
How does Vaseline’s “White Lotus” partnership match into the image?
Leisure property or model collaborations are all about intentionality. How do you discover methods to raise your model values and what the model stands for — the character, the tonality you need to carry ahead with issues which are tremendous culturally related — that you understand will get numerous buzz, however have a approach to carry your product in to construct relevancy with shoppers in an fascinating manner?
“White Lotus” was led out of Southeast Asia markets with Gluta-Hya. They received numerous superb traction out of it based mostly on the place “White Lotus” was filmed; it was actually related to carry that product ahead there.
Collabs are one thing that we’re very severely and persevering with to consider. Who’re the fascinating and sudden companions that our neighborhood actually connects with, and the way do we discover these partnerships to raise the model dialog in an fascinating manner? We do not need to do too many, as a result of there’s the priority of fatigue. However when you do the appropriate partnerships on the proper time, it might actually generate numerous worth for the model and doubtlessly herald new shoppers which may not have thought-about you earlier than.
How do you see AI altering your job as a marketer?
I consider AI as this superb thought accomplice and co-pilot, however the fundamentals of what we have discovered [about] rising manufacturers through the years, that does not go away. How do you utilize AI to assist complement workflows of issues like content material creation to raise your work and supply a unique perspective, however to not essentially take over what you are doing?
We’re positively utilizing [AI] in locations, on a few of our content material provide chain, however I am additionally intentional about the place the AI-driven content material reveals up with a model like Vaseline that has such deep belief and heritage available in the market.
It is thrilling to consider how a lot capability goes to be freed up by the usage of AI instruments and workflows, and the way that creates more room and time so that you can be inventive and strategic and to assume extra expansively concerning the model.
A number of the low-value-added actions my crew and I are spending time on in the present day, how can we automate that work after which unlock the time to only dream and take into consideration how that manifests in several product executions, activations and methods to attach with our neighborhood?
