Digital glow-up: How Unilever blends AI, creators, and culture to build desire at scale

“We want to connect with people as people, not as consumers.” – Selina Sykes

As content multiplies, platforms fragment, and algorithms reshape how attention flows, global brands are under quiet pressure. Not to produce more, but to decide what actually matters. Selina Sykes, VP and Global Head of Digital Marketing and Social-First, Unilever, Beauty & Wellbeing, sits at the center of that challenge. She leads one of the world’s largest beauty portfolios at a moment when relevance depends on cultural fluency, operational discipline, and the ability to scale creativity without losing meaning.

In this episode of The Speed of Culture, Selina shares how Unilever is navigating that tension. She breaks down the company’s shift toward desire at scale, the systems behind its AI content supply chain, the role of Brand DNAI in protecting brand meaning, and what campaigns like Vaseline Verified reveal about creators, community, and trust in a many-to-many marketing world.

Tune into the latest episode or read the transcript below to learn more. Here are some top takeaways:

Why Noise Has Become the Real Risk

Selina speaks candidly about noise, and not only inside organizations.

Consumers today face constant input: content, creators, recommendations, updates. The result is definitely not excitement. When everything competes for attention, very little earns it, and that causes fatigue.

This insight reframes the Unilever marketing transformation. The goal is not producing more output. The goal is reducing friction for teams deciding what to make and for people deciding what to engage with. Clarity becomes the scarce resource.

In this context, relevance depends on restraint. Brands that slow down enough to choose intentionally tend to move faster where it matters.

From Broadcast Thinking to a Many-to-Many Reality

Selina describes a clear break from the broadcast era. One-to-many marketing no longer reflects how people discover, share, or decide.

Unilever now operates within a many-to-many marketing model, where ideas move through communities, creators, and interest-based ecosystems. That reality demands far more content, but also far better judgment.

To support that shift, Unilever invested in an AI content supply chain built to handle scale without losing brand integrity. The system helps teams create and adapt content quickly, respond to cultural moments in real time, and distribute work across markets, all while staying anchored in what each brand stands for.

This is not about chasing speed as a metric. It is about building the capacity to respond with discipline. To move when it matters. To pause when it does not. And to give teams the structure they need so creativity does not collapse under pressure.

Brand DNAI and Why Context Now Carries the Weight

At the center of Unilever’s marketing system sits Brand DNAI, but Selina is careful not to describe it as a piece of technology first. She talks about it as memory.

After decades of building global brands, Unilever carries an enormous amount of knowledge, what each brand stands for, the codes people recognize instantly, the moments that built trust, and the ones that didn’t. Historically, much of that knowledge lived in people’s heads, in slide decks, or in processes that slowed teams down when speed mattered most.

Brand DNAI changes that by turning brand understanding into a living context layer. Teams can interact with it directly. They can pressure-test creative ideas, assess whether a creator fits the brand’s values, or sense-check decisions against performance history, all without losing momentum.

In a world shaped by AI in content creation, this context becomes essential. AI can accelerate production, but it cannot decide what matters. Meaning still comes from human judgment. Brand DNAI exists to protect that meaning, allowing teams to move faster without drifting away from what makes each brand recognizable and trusted.

The result is not constraint. It is confidence. Creativity gains freedom because it operates within clear guardrails, not because it is automated without accountability.

Digital Twins and What Scale Finally Makes Possible

One of the most tangible examples Selina shares involves digital twins in marketing.

Instead of repeating product shoots across hundreds of markets, Unilever creates digital replicas that adapt endlessly. Teams adjust angles, backgrounds, languages, and lighting without starting over.

The immediate benefit is efficiency. The deeper benefit is creative confidence. Faster integration of insight, brief, and execution leads to stronger outcomes like higher view-through rates, improved purchase intent, and content that feels designed rather than recycled.

Here, AI in content creation does its most valuable work: shortening the distance between insight and impact.

Vaseline Verified and Earning the Right to Participate

The most human moment in the conversation comes with the Vaseline Verified campaign.

The idea did not originate in a boardroom. It came from people sharing everyday hacks online. Instead of interrupting, Unilever listened. The brand tested those hacks in its labs, then invited creators into the process.

Some hacks worked. Some did not. The results were shared openly, and creators were invited into the process rather than used to amplify it.

This approach reframed Unilever’s creator economy strategy. Creators became collaborators. Community became the source. The campaign succeeded because it added value before asking for attention,  which is a principle now embedded across social-first marketing Unilever leads.

From Search to Agentic Decision-Making

Looking forward, Selina outlines a shift with lasting implications.

As people rely more on systems that understand context, traditional search fades into the background. The next stage is agentic shopping, where AI agents begin taking action, not just offering suggestions.

This evolution reshapes the AI agents consumer journey. Brands will increasingly be interpreted by machines before reaching people. Clarity, usefulness, and trust will matter more than optimization tricks.

Unilever’s investment in Brand DNAI and its AI content supply chain prepares the organization for this shift by ensuring brand meaning remains legible, even when mediated by technology.

What Long Tenure Teaches About Change

Selina reflects on nearly twenty years at Unilever with refreshing honesty.

The advantage of staying is depth. Pattern recognition. Relationships that remove friction. The risk is complacency. Her answer has been movement, across roles, functions, and challenges, while maintaining an outsider’s curiosity.

Progress, she notes, comes from participation. You learn faster by building than by watching.

What This Conversation Offers Brand Leaders

This episode offers a practical lens on modern brand building.

Key takeaways surface clearly:

• Culture moves faster than organizational structure.
• Scale works best when supported by systems, not shortcuts.
• AI in content creation strengthens intent when guided by people.
• Creators build trust when treated as partners, not placements.
• Clarity cuts through noise more effectively than volume.
• Leadership reveals itself through action, not certainty.

For leaders navigating global beauty marketing, AI in content creation, or the broader question of relevance in a fragmented world, this conversation delivers grounded perspective rather than surface commentary.