The pace of marketing is starting to look less like a fixed calendar and more like a live system shaped by culture and social media, where trends can spread in hours and fade just as quickly. The speed of online attention is a key driver behind this shift. That shift is pushing large consumer brands to rethink how they build products and run campaigns, and how they turn attention into sales.
That change sits at the centre of Unilever’s current marketing direction. Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Esi Eggleston Bracey said the company’s “Desire at Scale” strategy is designed to help brands connect with people “authentically and at speed to drive sales.” She described the model as one that links culture, community, and commerce more closely than before.
This makes the shift more than a brand message. It points to a wider operating shift inside large consumer companies. Instead of treating product, media, and commerce as separate steps, the goal is to tighten the link between what people are talking about and what brands choose to make. It also connects those decisions more closely to how products are sold. Unilever’s 2025 annual report describes “Desire at Scale” as part of a broader push to build “a faster, simpler and technology-enabled organisation Fit for the AI Age.”
The company’s wording adds important context here. Bracey did not frame the strategy as simple ad optimisation. She wrote that the approach is about “relevance as a growth engine,” with marketing built around stronger cultural connection and faster action. This suggests a model where timing matters as much as the message itself.
From trends to product decisions in marketing
A recent Sunsilk launch offers a clearer view of how that works in practice. Unilever said Sunsilk has been reshaped around Gen Z beauty trends through social-first marketing and new product ideas. One example is Wondermist, a hair perfume mist designed around a “mood-boosting” concept. The company said the product uses fragrance technology tied to emotion and confidence. This shows how the brand is mixing beauty, self-care, and science-backed claims in the same launch.
That positioning also reflects a broader change in beauty marketing. Unilever cited research from Kantar showing that eight in ten people now seek holistic beauty routines that include self-care. In other words, beauty is being sold less as pure function and more as part of mood and routine. This helps explain why brands such as Sunsilk are trying to build products that fit both emotional and practical needs.
This does not mean every viral trend should become a product. But it does show how marketing teams are being asked to work closer to product teams than before. A trend may begin as a social signal. The response can then shape packaging, formula, and creator content. Retail timing may also shift to match demand. The challenge is to move fast without making claims that are weak or hard to support.
Balancing speed with credibility
That is where the “science-backed” part becomes important. In categories like beauty and personal care, emotional language alone is often not enough. A product may be framed around confidence or self-expression, but buyers still expect some evidence behind the claim. That is why brands often pair lifestyle language with ingredient stories or testing. Sunsilk’s Wondermist is one example of that mix.
There is also a practical reason large brands are moving this way. Social platforms do not just shape awareness anymore. They also influence demand and product discovery. Buying intent often follows quickly. When a brand sees a clear shift in how younger consumers talk about beauty, waiting for the next planning cycle may mean missing the moment.
Unilever’s framing of culture, community, and commerce suggests it sees these signals as part of one continuous system rather than separate tasks.
This creates both promise and risk. A tighter link between social trends and product launches may help brands react faster. It may also make brand planning less stable if every short-lived signal gets treated as a major opportunity. The harder task is choosing which signals matter and which do not.
Still, the broader direction is clear. Marketing is moving closer to real-time decision-making. Cultural relevance and product timing are becoming more closely linked to sales. Unilever’s “Desire at Scale” strategy offers one view of that shift. It shows how marketing is no longer only about what a brand says in public, but also about how quickly a company can act on what it learns.
(Photo by Melanie Deziel)
See also: Unilever partners with Google Cloud to expand AI use in marketing and commerce
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