Unilever CEO: 'Spend on social will jump from 30% to 50%'

In his first public appearance as chief executive of Unilever, Fernando Fernandez has outlined his goals for the brand, which owns Dove, Hellmann's and Persil among many others.

In an interview with Warren Ackerman, head of European consumer staples research at Barclays, Fernandez admitted that, "Today, brands—by definition and by default—are met with scepticism when their messages come directly from corporations”. 

“So, creating marketing activity systems where others can speak for your brand at scale is incredibly important. Influencers, celebrities, TikTokers—these are the voices that matter," he added. 

Fernandez, an economist from the University of Buenos Aires, who joined Unilever in 1988, identified influencers, content gatekeepers and healthcare professionals as key channels to help boost the conglomerate’s brands in local regions. 

“Our spend on social will move from 30% to 50%”

“There are two things I will drive like hell: desirability at scale and marketing systems with what others say about our brands at scale,” Fernandez said. “Our marketing spend has moved from 13% in 2022 to now close to 16% which we see as a competitive level. Our spend on social [media] will move from 30% to 50% of our total spend. We will work with 20 times more influencers.”

Fernandez expanded on his vision for hyper-local engagement with consumers. "There are 19,000 zip codes in India and 5764 municipalities in Brazil. I want at least one influencer in each of them. In some, I want 100. That’s a significant shift,” he said.

Fernandez added that this will require “a machine-like approach to content creation—very different from what we’ve done in the past.”

"AI will play a crucial role in this, and I’m absolutely committed."

Unilever has already made waves in the influencer space. In 2023, it partnered TikTok to launch dedicated content series and programme activations to be housed in a #CleanTok content hub, which was viewed over 98.5 billion times in its first year. 

Unilever has a presence in 190 countries, serving 3.4 billion people every day. Some of its largest brands include Knorr, Axe (Lynx), Ben & Jerry's, Lifebuoy, Lux, Magnum, Omo, Rexona, Sunlight, Sunsilk and Wall's (Heartbrand).

Fernandez was appointed CEO in March 2025. Prior to this, Fernando was chief financial officer from January 2024 and president of beauty and wellbeing, one of Unilever’s fastest-growing businesses. 

Fixing some of the geographical issues

Speaking more broadly about Unilever's global challenge, Fernandez warned against underinvestment saying "being consciously uncompetitive is a criminal act. We will always ensure our investment levels keep us competitive".

“Very successful FMCG companies have anchor markets,” he added. “Our two anchor markets are the US and India. If the EU has been historically neglected, growth has started to accelerate there with unprecedented focus on innovation. China and Indonesia will now improve sequentially.

“I feel fixing some of the geographical issues we have—China, Indonesia, accelerating India—is very important for me at this point of time. We have not been good enough in rolling out our brands globally. I believe in the long run we need a wider presence of our strongest brands. I feel we have made a significant step with the Top 30 brands and the focus we are putting on them, but I believe we can go faster in rollout, continue driving optimisation of our portfolio into premium, with a good programme for total acquisitions and disposals.”

Concluding the interview, Fernandez described his leadership style as “a frontline CEO”.

“I will be all over the brand's plans, demand generation and in-market execution, that is where I will spend 95% of my time," he concluded. 

View the full interview below:

This article first appeared on Campaign's sister title Performance Marketing World.