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Originally found over 150 years ago on a Pennsylvania oilfield, the simple jar of Vaseline might not appear as an clear candidate for online content feeds.

Yet the brand’s emergence as a popular subject on TikTok has placed it at the forefront of an promotional upheaval, seeing big businesses allocating substantial funds to content creators and reducing expenditure on advertising goods in traditional media.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

First created commercially in the 1870s by a chemist, Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers rubbing their skin with a derivative of drilling. Today, a spree of amateur-created clips have documented the product’s widespread use in “practical tricks”.

It has been touted as a fix for dirty sneakers or prolonging the scent of perfume, and also a remedy for noisy doorways. It has even been deployed to prevent the annoyance of chip seasoning clinging to fingers.

Leveraging the Buzz

Noticing its viral resurgence, strategists within the corporation enhanced the tricks by asking their own scientists to test them and letting the content creators in on the results.

Assertions that it diminished the burn from hot food on the lips were given the thumbs up. So too were ideas it could extend fragrance and revive leather bags. Suggestions it could whiten teeth or extend lashes were disproven.

A Plan Built on ‘Social Listening’

Billboards and TV ads would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. But the Vaseline phenomenon has led decision-makers to turbocharge spending on content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to shape commercial tactics has been labeled “social listening”. Unilever's CEO, recently appointed, has stated the intention is to spend 50% of its massive marketing spend 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 connecting with customers. She said interacting online “without killing the party” was crucial.

“What is the key to genuine brand integration? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, since the era of community gossip and talking about what they used.

“The trend is shifting from a mass communication approach, where we would just send out ads … Currently, it's countless discussions, diverse communities. Changes in digital feeds means that these groups seem specialized, yet they are vast.

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

A Revolutionary Change in Media

This plan mirrors seismic changes occurring in how media is consumed, with younger consumers spending more time on apps like TikTok and Instagram than traditional TV, print, or radio.

The transition is visible in falling revenues for traditional media advertising. In the UK, commercial funding for leading TV channels have declined by over six hundred million pounds in real terms since 2019.

The Creator Economy Boom

It also reflects a media convergence as corporations essentially turn into content studios, collaborating with numerous influencers to boost their products.

Leon Harlow said: “Clearly, there is a migration of viewers out of certain traditional media outlets and they’re spending a lot more time on 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 personalities they subscribe to over traditional advertisements. This is a persistent pattern.”

He added firms may also cut expenditures by targeting content creators over large-scale legacy ad buys, which also permits simpler message refinement to see what works.

Such methods are increasing. Promotional expenditure on the creator economy is rising at quadruple the rate than the media industry overall. In the US, it has increased by over 100% since 2021 and is forecast to attain tens of billions in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

Even with this transformation, experts said they believed broadcast ads retained significant importance to play, as broadcasters retained the power to drive countrywide discourse.

Sykes said: “Among the most effective advertising investments is still major broadcast spectacles. It’s not about those broadcasters saying: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ It concerns who commands eyeballs … I believe there is absolutely a role for them.”