Unilever Goes Full 'Influencerzilla,' Now Employing 300,000 Babysitters for Brands

KEY POINTS

•In March 2024, Unilever CEO Fernando Fernández announced increasing their influencer partnerships by twentyfold worldwide.
•By November, Unilever was collaborating with approximately 300,000 influencers and dedicating half their ad budget to social media.
•Other major brands like General Mills and Bath & Body Works followed suit, increasing influencer spend amid a crowded creator market.

This year, Unilever CEO Fernando Fernández took influencer marketing from 'a thing' to 'the thing' by announcing a 20X expansion in creator partnerships. Starting March, the consumer-goods titan behind Dove, Hellmann’s, and Vaseline vowed to pump half its ad budget—up from 30%—into social media. As of November, that's close to 300,000 influencers globally, essentially creating a digital multiverse of sponsored posts. Marketing experts noted this created a price surge, especially for macro-influencers with 100,000+ followers, because why wouldn’t they up fees when a $37 billion U.S. influencer market is swelling 26% yearly? Meanwhile, the user-generated-content crowd nearly doubled in 2024, ironically dropping average pay from $214 to $202 per collab. So congratulations to the tiny hamster wheels behind your #UnlockYourGreenFlag dating-cooking TikTok posts—a few stars soared, but the influencer gravy train mostly ran over the little guys. Other brands like General Mills and Bath & Body Works scrambled to play catch-up, making ‘going influencer-first’ the new black—because where Unilever trots, the corporate pack hastily follows.