Case Study: Unilever Social Media Strategy – Internal Digital Social Platform & Project Sunshine

Unilever Plc sells more than 400 brands of products across the world in 190 countries and the company iconic global brands include Dove soap, Hellman's mayo, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Axe deodorant, etc. Unilever is world's No. 2 consumer-goods company and spends more than US$10 billion on advertising and promotion of its products. In 2013 end, Unilever launched an internal companywide social media campaign Project Sunshine that shifted from different marketing campaigns for individual products in different countries to a new strategy that promotes the brands' social-mission stories and urges consumers to make small changes in their own lives—changes that generally involve buying Unilever products. The company shifted its focus based on the fact across consumer products industry most of the players have realized social media as cheapest and effective way of reaching customers and also need to have a centralized marketing strategy which will enhance the effectiveness of social media strategy overall. Social media marketing is different from traditional marketing as social media is real-time and companies need to sense and respond immediately and constantly review and change their social media strategy.

The internal digital platform was designed and built by Accenture using Salesforce.com Chatter, the enterprise social networking technology, that will help Unilever connect its marketers, brand managers and partners in 190 countries and enables sharing of knowledge, best practices and creative assets across the company. According to Accenture press release, “The new applications boost collaboration amongst our marketers globally, helping them to easily find people, information and conversations that they should be a part of,” said Marc Mathieu, SVP Marketing, Unilever. “The platform provides our team with the tools they need to develop and build our brands in local markets, which is critical to driving our ‘Crafting Brands for Life’ strategy. It also frees up time for our team to create more magic – that is, to engage with consumers and create more effective marketing, which will be key to delivering our ambition to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact.”

For effective social marketing the digital platform will help Unilever brand team create a central hub that showcases individual brands and allows marketers and partners participate in conversations and also access relevant content and assets. There also has to be collaboration with the central brand teams in company headquarters and local teams in different countries so that company maintains uniform brand strategy on various social networking sites. “These tools really help us harness the power of the brands, the power of the people in Unilever and our agency partners – that combination is very powerful for us,” said Mark McClennon, CIO Consumer, Unilever. Unilever believes social media savvy consumers are expecting from the company high ethical standards, accountability and transparency across all the company’s brands and Unilever is using the social networking sites to deliver the message of sustainable living.