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Originally found more than 150 years ago within a Pennsylvania drilling site, the humble pot of Vaseline may not seem like an clear candidate for social media algorithms.

However, its rise as a viral TikTok topic has thrust it into the lead of an promotional upheaval, in which large companies are allocating substantial funds to content creators and reducing expenditure on promoting products in legacy broadcasters.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

Originally produced in the 1870s by chemist Robert Cheeseborough, who saw laborers applying to their skin with a byproduct of the drilling process. Today, a spree of user-generated videos have documented the product’s widespread use in “practical tricks”.

It has been touted as a remedy for cleaning shoes or making fragrance last longer, and also a remedy for creaky hinges. It has even been deployed to combat the nuisance of crisp flavouring sticking to fingers.

Harnessing the Hype

Spotting its digital renaissance, strategists within the corporation enhanced the tricks by having their research teams evaluate the claims and providing creators with the outcome data.

Claims that Vaseline reduced the sensation of spicy food on lips were given the thumbs up. So too were ideas it could lengthen scent duration and revive leather bags. Suggestions it could whiten teeth or extend lashes were debunked.

A Plan Built on ‘Social Listening’

Print ads and broadcast spots would once have dominated Unilever’s advertising drive. But the Vaseline phenomenon has helped convince executives to turbocharge spending on content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to guide corporate planning has been labeled “social listening”. Unilever's CEO, freshly instated, has stated the intention is to spend half of its colossal advertising budget on digital creator content.

Adapting to New Consumer Habits

Selina Sykes, who is spearheading the social media effort, said the company was simply adapting to new ways of engaging audiences. She said engaging on social media “without killing the party” was paramount.

“How do brands authentically become part of the conversation? This remains our core objective as brands, back to when people were hanging out their laundry and talking about what they used.

“There’s this moving away from a one-to-many model, where we would just send out ads … Today, it's numerous dialogues, various groups. Changes in digital feeds means that these audiences appear specific, yet they are vast.

“Ensuring your product is discussed by other people, talked about by other people, this builds credibility and connection. Influencers are vital for this. This word-of-mouth strategy is being amplified.”

A Revolutionary Change in Media

The strategy reflects dramatic transformations happening in audience habits, with the youth demographic spending more time on apps like TikTok and Instagram than television, magazines or radio.

This change is evidenced by drops in TV and print advertising. Across Britain, commercial funding for primary networks have dropped substantially in actual value since the end of the last decade.

Influencer Marketing Expansion

This further signifies a media convergence as brands effectively act as media producers, collaborating with numerous influencers to promote their goods.

An industry expert from a leading agency said: “Obviously there’s a flow of audiences out of certain traditional media outlets and their time is increasingly on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are consuming linear broadcasts or printed matter.

“A lot of brands are telling us audiences believe endorsements from the creators they engage with more than they trust ads. That’s a consistent trend.”

He added firms may also cut expenditures by targeting content creators over large-scale legacy ad buys, which also allows them to tweak their content more easily to gauge performance.

This strategy is expanding. Marketing investment on influencer marketing is rising at quadruple the rate than the media industry overall. Across the United States, it has over doubled since 2021 and is projected to reach tens of billions in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

Even with this transformation, executives said they believed broadcast ads retained significant importance to play, as TV channels continued to possess the influence to drive countrywide discourse.

Sykes said: “Among the most effective advertising investments is still major broadcast spectacles. The issue isn't broadcasters claiming: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ The focus is on who seizes focus … There is undoubtedly a future for traditional media.”