‘Online Monitoring’: The Consumer Goods Giant Looks to Exploit Vaseline’s TikTok Moment.

Originally found over 150 years ago on a Pennsylvania oilfield, the modest tin of Vaseline might not appear as an obvious target for online content feeds.

Nonetheless, its ascent as a viral TikTok topic has thrust it into the lead of an advertising revolution, where major corporations are allocating substantial funds to content creators and reducing expenditure on promoting products in legacy broadcasters.

From Oil Rigs to Online Hacks

Originally produced in the 1870s by a chemist, Robert Cheeseborough, who noticed oil rig workers using on their skin with a byproduct of the drilling process. Currently, a wave of amateur-created clips have recorded its extensive utilization in “everyday tips”.

It has been touted as a solution for polishing footwear or making fragrance last longer, and also a remedy for noisy doorways. Users have even applied it to stop the scourge of chip seasoning clinging to fingers.

Harnessing the Hype

Noticing its viral resurgence, strategists within the corporation boosted the tips by asking their own scientists to test them and sharing the findings with influencers.

Suggestions that it lessened the sensation of spicy food on lips were confirmed. So too were ideas it could lengthen scent duration and rejuvenate purses. Suggestions it could bleach teeth or lengthen eyelashes were refuted.

The ‘Digital Ear’ Approach

Outdoor advertising and television commercials would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. However, this online trend has helped convince executives to ramp up funding for content creators.

This observation of social channels to inform business strategy has been termed “social listening”. Unilever's CEO, freshly instated, has suggested it is aiming to spend half of its colossal advertising budget on social media content.

Adapting to New Consumer Habits

Selina Sykes, who is leading the online push, said the company was merely adjusting to novel methods of engaging audiences. She said participating on platforms “without spoiling the atmosphere” was crucial.

“How can companies join discussions credibly? This remains our core objective as brands, dating to when neighbors chatted over fences and discussing household products.

“There’s this moving away from a mass communication approach, where we would just transmit messages … Currently, it's countless discussions, diverse communities. The evolution of platform algorithms means that these groups seem specialized, yet they are vast.

“Ensuring your product is discussed by users, recommended by peers, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Influencers are vital for this. This word-of-mouth strategy is being amplified.”

A Fundamental Consumption Turn

The strategy reflects dramatic transformations happening in audience habits, with Gen Z and millennial audiences allocating more attention to social media platforms than television, magazines or radio.

The transition is visible in drops in traditional media advertising. In the UK, advertising income for leading TV channels have dropped substantially in inflation-adjusted terms since 2019.

The Creator Economy Boom

This further signifies a merging of functions as corporations essentially turn into content studios, partnering with numerous influencers to boost their products.

An industry expert from a leading agency said: “Clearly, there is a migration of viewers away from some legacy media and they’re spending a lot more time on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are viewing scheduled television or reading physical magazines.

“Numerous corporations inform us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the personalities they subscribe to over traditional advertisements. This is a persistent pattern.”

He noted companies can reduce costs by focusing on influencers over expensive broadcast campaigns, which also allows them to tweak their content more easily to test effectiveness.

The approach is growing. Advertising spending on digital creator partnerships is rising at quadruple the rate than the media industry overall. In the US, it has increased by over 100% since 2021 and is projected to reach multi-billion dollar sums in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

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

Sykes said: “A top-tier ROI marketing event is still major broadcast spectacles. It's not a matter of networks declaring: ‘We are no longer pertinent.’ It concerns who commands eyeballs … I believe there is absolutely a role for them.”