Digital Glow-Up: Unilever Blends AI, Creators, and Culture to Build Desire at Scale

Marketing no longer runs on broadcast thinking. Modern brands win by behaving like participants in culture, not distributors of messages. 

In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Matt Britton sits with Selina Sykes, VP of beauty & wellbeing and global head of digital marketing and social at Unilever, for a deep look at the company’s marketing transformation. 

Selina breaks down how Brand DNAi, AI in content creation, digital twins, creators, and cultural insight come together to build “desire at scale.” She also explains how AI agents and agentic shopping will rewrite the future consumer journey, and why authenticity and community matter more than ever in global beauty.

She also shares why the “Vaseline Verified” campaign became a turning point, how the company builds for a many-to-many marketing model, and what brands must understand as AI agents consumer journey tools start shaping real purchase decisions.

Selina has spent nearly 20 years at Unilever, moving through roles in brand building, ecommerce, incubation, and global transformation. Her path includes serving as marketing director, running The Uncovery as CEO, stepping into multiple VP roles, and now shaping how Unilever competes in global beauty marketing through culture, creators, and technology.

Her work speaks loudly across the industry. At Cannes, she shared her vision for an AI-driven Unilever marketing transformation the same week her team took home 11 Lions, two Grands Prix, and a Titanium award for “Vaseline Verified.” 

Key Takeaways:

[01:27] Global Trends, Local Nuance, and the Forces Beneath Them — Selina explains that trends may surface differently in each region, but the real story sits underneath them. What looks like separate cultural waves often comes from the same human shift, which is why Unilever looks beyond aesthetics to understand the deeper forces shaping people. This perspective is essential for global beauty marketing, helping brands stay relevant without chasing noise or copying what’s viral in one market.

[03:12] AI Is Only Useful When It Solves Real Problems — Selina treats AI as a foundation, not a headline. Her team starts with human friction, what slows people down, what complicates decisions, what marketers cannot scale alone. Only then do they decide how AI should help. This is the core of the Unilever marketing transformation, prioritizing real outcomes rooted in behavior, growth, and clarity. It keeps the work grounded while still unlocking the power of change.

[05:38] Building a True AI Content Engine — To reach people through their passions and communities, Unilever needed more content than traditional systems could ever support. Selina describes how the company built an AI content supply chain capable of producing volume, variety, and speed without sacrificing creative intent. This shift allows Unilever to operate within a many-to-many marketing model, where brands connect fluidly across cultures, creators, and platforms.

[07:34] Brand DNAI: Guardrails for Global Creativity — Selina shares how Brand DNAi turns decades of brand equity into a modern, living context layer. Teams anywhere in the world can query it like a creative partner, grounding their ideas in what the brand stands for while evolving it for today. It protects heritage, strengthens judgment, and gives creators confidence. It also ensures AI in content creation elevates the brand instead of diluting it.

[10:02] Digital Twins and Performance Gains — Unilever’s use of digital twins in marketing has removed a huge amount of production friction. Instead of reshooting product packs across markets, teams now generate endless variations, new angles, textures, languages, or lighting within seconds. Selina highlights how this shift lowers cost, speeds up work, and improves results. It is one of the strongest proof points of the AI content engine Unilever has spent years building.

[13:49] Vaseline Verified: Community-First Done Right — The “Vaseline Verified” campaign started with real people sharing hacks online. Instead of entering as a distant brand voice, Unilever validated the hacks in its labs, invited creators into the process, and built the story with them. Selina sees this as a blueprint for modern collaboration that is deeply human, culturally aware, and rooted in value. It now shapes Unilever’s creator economy strategy and broader social-first marketing Unilever efforts.

[16:35] Authenticity, Creators, and the De-Influencing Era — Selina reflects on how audiences now move past content that feels transactional. People want creators who genuinely use and understand the products they endorse. Unilever responds by investing in long-term, thoughtful partnerships instead of quick visibility boosts. It strengthens trust, supports creators’ credibility, and ensures the brand earns attention rather than renting it. Authenticity has become a strategic advantage, not a nice-to-have.

[19:53] Agentic Shopping and the Rise of AI Agents — Selina describes how agentic shopping will reshape discovery and decision-making. As people rely more on AI agents to interpret needs, filter options, and take action, brands must understand how these systems “see” them. This shift rewrites the AI agents consumer journey, introducing new ways for brands to show up and earn relevance. It becomes a new frontier of competition, where human insight and machine logic meet.