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Originally found over 150 years ago in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, the humble pot of Vaseline could hardly be considered an obvious target for online content feeds.

However, its rise as a popular subject on TikTok has thrust it into the lead of an marketing transformation, in which large companies are allocating substantial funds to content creators and devoting less capital to advertising goods in legacy broadcasters.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

The petroleum jelly was first manufactured 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 content from users have recorded its extensive utilization in “life hacks”.

It has been touted as a fix for dirty sneakers or extending perfume longevity, along with a cure for noisy doorways. It has even been deployed to stop the scourge of chip seasoning clinging to fingers.

Leveraging the Buzz

Detecting the product’s new life online, marketers at Unilever enhanced the tricks by having their research teams evaluate the claims and letting the content creators in on the results.

Assertions that it diminished the sensation of spicy food on lips were given the thumbs up. So too were ideas it could extend fragrance and revive leather bags. Suggestions it could brighten smiles or extend lashes were disproven.

The ‘Social Listening’ Strategy

Billboards and TV ads would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. However, this online trend has led decision-makers to ramp up funding for content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to guide corporate planning has been dubbed “social listening”. The company's chief executive, recently appointed, has suggested it is aiming to spend a full fifty percent of its huge ad budget on digital creator content.

Evolving With Audience Behavior

The company's social media lead, who is spearheading the social media effort, said the company was just evolving with contemporary approaches of connecting with customers. She said engaging on social media “without spoiling the atmosphere” was essential.

“What is the key to genuine brand integration? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do 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 … Now it’s many conversations, diverse communities. The shift of the algorithms means that these groups seem specialized, however, they are large.

“Ensuring your product is discussed by consumers, talked about by other people, that is how you can build trust and relevance. Influencers are vital for this. We are expanding this endorsement system.”

A Revolutionary Change in Media

The approach indicates seismic changes taking place in media consumption, with Gen Z and millennial audiences allocating more attention to social media platforms than traditional TV, print, or radio.

This change is evidenced by declines in TV and print advertising. Within the United Kingdom, advertising income for primary networks have fallen by more than £600m in actual value since the end of the last decade.

Influencer Marketing Expansion

Additionally, it points to a blurring of media roles as brands effectively act as media producers, partnering with hundreds of content creators to promote their goods.

Leon Harlow said: “Naturally, an exodus of attention away from some legacy media and they are dedicating far more hours to social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are consuming linear broadcasts or printed matter.

“A lot of brands are telling us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the creators they engage with over traditional advertisements. It's an ongoing shift.”

He added firms may also cut expenditures by targeting content creators over big traditional media campaigns, which also allows them to tweak their content more easily to gauge performance.

The approach is growing. Marketing investment on the creator economy is rising at quadruple the rate than the broader media sector. Across the United States, it has over doubled since 2021 and is projected to reach tens of billions in 2025.

TV's Lasting Role

Even with this transformation, experts said they believed TV advertising still had a prominent role to play, as TV channels continued to possess the influence to drive countrywide discourse.

Sykes said: “One of the highest return-on-investment media opportunities is still the Super Bowl. It's not a matter of networks declaring: ‘Oh, we’re not relevant any more.’ It concerns who commands eyeballs … I think there’s 100% a place for them.”