Unilever ’20X’ Influencer Mandate Sparks Creator Advertising Gold Rush

Creators are ringing in a banner 12 months for influencer advertising and marketing, they usually would possibly take into account sending a thank-you observe to Unilever CEO Fernando Fernández.

In March, Fernández unveiled a brand new “influencer-first” technique. He mentioned the consumer-goods firm would work with 20 instances the variety of influencers it had beforehand labored with. The proprietor of well-known manufacturers akin to Dove, Hellmann’s, and Vaseline additionally mentioned that it might spend half of its advert finances on social media, up from 30%.

The consequence has been a galvanizing occasion for the influencer advertising and marketing house, based on advertising and marketing consultants and executives, expertise brokers, and influencer advertising and marketing insiders.

“Unilever committing to increasing the influencer roster by 20X inevitably results in elevated leverage on the availability facet, leading to important value inflation and a wave of latest entrants attempting to capitalize on the influencer rush,” mentioned Ruben Schreurs, chief government of the advertising and marketing and media consultancy Ebiquity.

This month, Fernández mentioned the corporate was working with “near 300,000 influencers” around the globe.

Unilever’s high-profile “20X” goal inspired different advertisers to reassess their influencer advertising and marketing methods, and in some instances, improve their spending as nicely. Elsewhere, some influencers reacted by proactively pitching to Unilever within the hope of touchdown tasks and increasing their scopes of labor. In sure markets and verticals, the dynamic has enabled top-tier influencers to extend their charges, insiders mentioned.

A survey of 200 entrepreneurs carried out by the influencer advertising and marketing company Linqia in July discovered that 62% of respondents supposed to extend their annual influencer budgets in 2026. US advertiser spending on creators is anticipated to achieve $37 billion in 2025, a 26% year-over-year improve, based on a report from the Interactive Promoting Bureau launched in November.

Whereas influencer advertising and marketing was already rising quickly, trade specialists mentioned Unilever — one of many world’s prime promoting spenders — has been a lightning rod for the house.

The place Unilever goes, different manufacturers comply with

A advertising and marketing advisor at a big consulting agency mentioned they’d obtained “an unbelievable quantity of inbound cellphone calls” from Fortune 500 manufacturers about how they may improve their influencer advertising and marketing funding since Unilever’s March announcement.

Whereas not all of these requests had been linked to Unilever, the advisor mentioned they’d picked up one contract from a shopper items firm to construct an influencer advertising and marketing street map, and Unilever was immediately cited because the inspiration. The advisor requested for anonymity to guard their enterprise relationships.

“The place Unilever goes, others comply with,” mentioned Sarah Mansfield, a advertising and marketing advisor who served as Unilever’s VP of world media till 2024. “If Unilever is articulating and executing this technique, there should be some motive why, so I perceive why that is driving that kind of momentum within the broader trade.”

Throughout the latest quarterly earnings season, executives at a number of main advertisers, together with Basic Mills, SharkNinja, Victoria’s Secret, Hole, Allbirds, and Tub & Physique Works, detailed how they’ve elevated — or plan to extend — their influencer advertising and marketing budgets

“We will incorporate way more neighborhood and influencers. That is a giant, massive change right here,” mentioned José Antonio Ramos, CEO of the net vogue retailer Asos, on the corporate’s newest earnings name concerning the adjustments it was making to its web site.

On the creator facet of the equation, Unilever’s shift has helped to push up charges for influencers who attraction to magnificence, private care, and a few meals manufacturers, mentioned the CEO of a worldwide advertising and marketing and communications firm. Mid-tier creators in markets the place Unilever already has a giant market share and who “sit within the candy spot of attain, belief, and value” are additionally reaping the rewards, he mentioned.

“In these pockets, we’re seeing greater competitors for a similar expertise, shortening lead instances, and a noticeable raise in what robust creators can command,” the CEO mentioned.

The influencer market can also be maturing extra usually. For instance, a single creator-brand partnership typically contains utilization rights and advertisements that run throughout a number of channels, akin to Meta and TikTok, mentioned Anders Invoice, cofounder of Superfiliate, an influencer advertising and marketing platform.

Not each creator is putting Unilever gold

The Unilever gold rush is not lifting all creators.

“From what we’re seeing, that inflation is basically concentrated on the macro finish of the market, the place creators naturally improve their charges the second a significant international model alerts it has important finances to deploy,” mentioned Asti Wagner, CEO of Invyted, an app that connects manufacturers with influencers.

This tends to be the creators with followings of 100,000-plus and illustration by expertise managers, who’re fast to react to information {that a} massive model like Unilever is rising its finances by upping their charges, Asti mentioned.

One other dynamic at play is the steep inflow of creators throughout varied platforms, together with Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Take the user-generated content material, or UGC, house. Within the influencer advertising and marketing world, UGC sometimes refers to posts and movies that creators promote to manufacturers to be used on their firm accounts. A report from the influencer market Collabstr discovered the variety of UGC creators had surged by 93% year-over-year in 2024, driving down the typical model spend per influencer collaboration.

Collabstr’s evaluation of 15,000 influencer collaborations in 2025 discovered that the typical spend per influencer had dropped to $202 from $214 the earlier 12 months.

“There’s a saturated market when it comes to provide, which counteracts the rise in demand from manufacturers akin to Unilever,” mentioned Raf McDonnell, founding father of creator and movie star expertise company Expertise & Manufacturers and managing associate of the social inventive company Supernova.

Creator advertising and marketing charges are additionally starting to stabilize in additional mature markets such because the US and UK, mentioned Olivia Wedderburn, head of affect and the UK-based advertising and marketing company Born Social.

Discrepancies in price inflation between macro and nano creators (these with fewer than 10,000 followers) apart, Ellen Topley, senior creator advertising and marketing director on the expertise company CAA’s model consulting division, mentioned there was little doubt that Unilever’s announcement earlier this 12 months “signaled a giant pivot within the trade.”

“It is a strategic response to a fragmented media panorama the place conventional channels are shedding to algorithm-driven platforms that ship super-targeted engagement,” Topley mentioned.