‘Social Listening’: The Consumer Goods Giant Aims to Harness Vaseline’s TikTok Moment.

Originally found more than 150 years ago within a Pennsylvania drilling site, the humble pot of Vaseline could hardly be considered an natural focus for digital platform algorithms.

Yet the brand’s emergence as a viral TikTok topic has thrust it into the lead of an promotional upheaval, in which large companies are investing heavily in content creators and reducing expenditure on advertising goods in conventional outlets.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

The petroleum jelly was first manufactured in the 1870s by scientist Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers applying to their skin with a derivative of drilling. Currently, a wave of user-generated videos have recorded its extensive utilization in “practical tricks”.

Promoted as a fix for dirty sneakers or extending perfume longevity, along with a cure for squeaky doors. Users have even applied it to combat the nuisance of chip seasoning clinging to fingers.

Harnessing the Hype

Detecting the product’s new life online, strategists within the corporation enhanced the tricks by asking their own scientists to test them and letting the content creators in on the results.

Suggestions that it lessened the sting of chili on the mouth were confirmed. So too were ideas it could extend fragrance and rejuvenate purses. Proposals that it might bleach teeth or lengthen eyelashes were disproven.

The ‘Social Listening’ Strategy

Outdoor advertising and television commercials would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. Yet this viral episode has persuaded leaders to dramatically increase investment in content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to shape commercial tactics has been dubbed “social listening”. Fernando Fernández, recently appointed, has indicated the goal is to spend a full fifty percent of its huge ad budget on platform-based material.

Adapting to New Consumer Habits

The company's social media lead, who is leading the online push, said the company was just evolving with contemporary approaches of engaging audiences. She said interacting online “without spoiling the atmosphere” was crucial.

“How can companies join discussions credibly? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, dating to when neighbors chatted over fences and talking about what they used.

“There’s this moving away from a one-to-many model, where we would just broadcast out … Today, it's numerous dialogues, diverse communities. Changes in digital feeds means that these audiences appear specific, however, they are large.

“Ensuring your product is discussed by consumers, talked about by other people, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Creators are critical to that. This word-of-mouth strategy is being amplified.”

A Fundamental Consumption Turn

The strategy reflects seismic changes taking place in media consumption, with Gen Z and millennial audiences devoting greater hours to digital networks than legacy broadcast and print media.

The shift is reflected in falling revenues for TV and print advertising. In the UK, advertising income for primary networks have dropped substantially in actual value since the end of the last decade.

Influencer Marketing Expansion

It also reflects a media convergence as corporations essentially turn into content studios, partnering with a multitude of digital creators to promote their goods.

An industry expert from a leading agency said: “Naturally, an exodus of attention away from some legacy media and they’re spending a lot more time on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are watching live TV or reading print.

“Many companies report to us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the individuals they follow more than they trust ads. This is a persistent pattern.”

He noted companies can reduce costs by focusing on influencers over big traditional media campaigns, which also enables easier content adjustment to gauge performance.

This strategy is expanding. Marketing investment on the creator economy is increasing four times faster than the media industry overall. Across the United States, it has over doubled since 2021 and is expected to hit tens of billions in 2025.

TV's Lasting Role

Despite the huge changes, industry figures said they believed TV advertising still had a prominent role to play, as TV channels continued to possess the influence to frame public debate.

The executive noted: “Among the most effective advertising investments is still events like the Super Bowl. It’s not about those broadcasters saying: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ The focus is on who seizes focus … There is undoubtedly a future for traditional media.”