How Unilever Used Artificial Intelligence to Make Soap Go Viral

A campaign for Crumbl cookie-scented Dove was pushed by an army of influencers—with AI help.

- Isabelle Bousquette

And Unilever aims to bring the same playbook to more of its humdrum toiletries.

Unilever is turbo-charging its influencer marketing efforts in an attempt to make products like Dove soap go viral on social media—and it's using artificial intelligence to do it.

Currently, the company works with tens of thousands of influencers and is aiming to grow that by 10 to 20 times over the next year, said Chief Enterprise and Technology Officer Steve McCrystal. Influencer marketing, he said, is "a very powerful avenue for driving growth, and equally we believe it's also powerful for creating credibility."