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Originally found over 150 years ago within a Pennsylvania drilling site, the modest tin of Vaseline could hardly be considered an clear candidate for online content feeds.

Yet the brand’s emergence as a TikTok talking point has thrust it into the lead of an advertising revolution, where major corporations are investing heavily in content creators and putting fewer resources into marketing items in traditional media.

The Path from Petroleum to Platforms

First created commercially in the 1870s by scientist Robert Cheeseborough, who observed drillers rubbing their skin with a derivative of drilling. Now, a flood of user-generated videos have documented the product’s widespread use in “practical tricks”.

It has been touted as a solution for polishing footwear or extending perfume longevity, along with a cure for creaky hinges. It has even been deployed to prevent the annoyance of snack dust adhering to hands.

Harnessing the Hype

Spotting its digital renaissance, marketers at Unilever enhanced the tricks by having their research teams evaluate the claims and sharing the findings with influencers.

Assertions that it diminished the burn from hot food on the lips were validated. This was also the case for ideas it could lengthen scent duration and restore leather handbags. Claims that it would brighten smiles or lengthen eyelashes were disproven.

A Plan Built on ‘Social Listening’

Print ads and broadcast spots would once have been the cornerstone of its marketing push. Yet this viral episode has persuaded leaders to dramatically increase investment in content creators.

This tracking of digital spaces to shape commercial tactics has been dubbed “social listening”. Fernando Fernández, freshly instated, has suggested it is aiming to spend a full fifty percent of its huge ad budget on platform-based material.

Evolving With Audience Behavior

The company's social media lead, who is heading the digital initiative, said the company was just evolving with contemporary approaches of engaging audiences. She said engaging on social media “without dampening the fun” was crucial.

“How do brands authentically become part of the conversation? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, since the era of community gossip 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, many communities. The evolution of platform algorithms means that these groups seem specialized, but they’re not.

“If you can make sure your brand is shared by consumers, recommended by peers, that fosters reliability and pertinence. Creators are critical to that. We’re really scaling this advocacy model.”

A Fundamental Consumption Turn

The approach indicates dramatic transformations happening in audience habits, with Gen Z and millennial audiences allocating more attention to social media platforms than traditional TV, print, or radio.

The transition is visible in falling revenues for broadcast and newspaper ads. In the UK, commercial funding for leading TV channels have dropped substantially in inflation-adjusted terms since 2019.

The Rise of the Creator Economy

It also reflects a merging of functions as brands effectively act as media producers, collaborating with a multitude of digital creators to promote their goods.

A commercial director at a major talent agency said: “Obviously there’s a flow of audiences from conventional channels and they are dedicating far more hours to digital video and image apps 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 said brands could also save money by targeting content creators over expensive broadcast campaigns, which also permits simpler message refinement to see what works.

Such methods are increasing. Marketing investment on influencer marketing is rising at quadruple the rate than total media spending. Stateside, it has over doubled since 2021 and is expected to hit tens of billions in 2025.

The Enduring Power of Broadcast

Even with this transformation, executives said they believed television commercials still played a key part to play, as broadcasters retained the power to shape the national conversation.

Sykes said: “One of the highest return-on-investment media opportunities is still the Super Bowl. It's not a matter of networks declaring: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ It’s about who’s capturing attention … I think there’s 100% a place for them.”