One Year Ago, Unilever CEO Swore to Hire ‘20x More Influencers.’ Did It Deliver on That Promise?

One year ago, Unilever’s CEO Fernando Fernandez announced that he would be hiring “20 times the amount of influencers” in a new marketing strategy.

One year ago, Unilever’s CEO Fernando Fernandez announced that the company would be hiring “20 times the amount of influencers” in a new marketing strategy. It was also, coincidentally, my first article on Hello Partner.

Since then, the impact has been seen across brands, agencies and the entire influencer marketing industry. Consumers have long trusted creators, and the C-suites were finally seeing that take place.

“Today, brands, by definition and by default, are met with scepticism when their messages come directly from corporations,” Fernandez had explained in an interview last year.

He said that creating marketing activity systems where others can “speak for your brand at scale” was “incredibly important” to him. “Influencers, celebrities, TikTokers - these are the voices that matter.”

"There are 19,000 zip codes in India and 5,764 municipalities in Brazil. I want at least one influencer in each of them. In some, I want 100,” he added at the time.

So, did Fernandez live up to his promise?

Unilever has certainly delivered. At a Barclays fireside chat, Fernandez put into perspective the scale of the transformation.

“We now have close to 300,000 people recommending our brands. Two years ago, we had around 10,000,” he said. He also highlighted that India, a key market for Unilever to expand into, has grown to 17,000 influencers.

The jump from 10,000 to 300,000 in the last two years means Fernandez has more than hit his target: Unilever now works with 30 times the number of influencers.

“Broadcasting messages from big brands now can become suspicious,” he said, noting that trust from consumers is much better gained from influencers.

In Disrupt Marketing’s most recent LinkedIn newsletter, Jake Crabb notes the impact on brands over the past year:

“The commercial ripple effects are already visible. After Unilever's announcement, marketing consultants reported a surge in inbound calls from Fortune 500 brands asking how to build their own influencer roadmaps. Earnings calls from General Mills, Gap, and Victoria's Secret all echoed the same pattern: executives outlining plans to increase creator investment.”

The new path Unilever has cleared for the future of influencer marketing is unstoppable; fully integrated into brand marketing strategy.

While big brands play catch-up and smaller companies make room in their budget for influencer marketing, there’s no denying Fernandez’s impact on the past year of our industry.