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How Did Unilever AI Marketing Make a Soap Go Viral in 2025?
New Customer Intake
Before
After
Key Metrics
- 3.5 B+ Impressions (on social media)
- 50% less Cost via Unilever AI Marketing
- Product time reduced from Months to Days
Marketing Objective
- Make Dove, youthful again
- Engage Gen Z as well as young Millennials
- Leverage AI for product marketing to generate buzz
- Gain first-time Dove users via Unilever AI Marketing
Key Highlights
- Created Digital Twins to test the best possible Dove version
- Used Unilever AI Marketing services to create thousands of marketing assets
- Engaged 10K+ Influencers to craft UGC (user-generated content)
Project Background
In an era of data-driven AI in soap marketing and algorithmic content creation, Unilever AI marketing efforts stood out as a benchmark for innovation in the FMCG sector.
Their mission? To make Dove, a heritage soap brand, go viral with Gen Z and Millennials.
These audiences were neither watching prime-time TV nor browsing traditional beauty aisles. Unilever’s vision wasn’t merely to push sales but to reposition soap as a cultural object—blending beauty, empowerment, and relevance through tech-led storytelling.
Business Background
Industry: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
Location: London, UK
Campaign Location: The USA
In mid-2024, Unilever set out to reinvent Dove, traditionally viewed as a functional soap brand.
They did it by creating a novelty limited-edition version scented like cookies in collaboration with Crumbl.
The goal? Make Dove part of a cultural moment using advanced AI marketing and influencer tools.
Challenges
Making a Legacy Soap go viral
We all know Dove soap, and there is nothing new about it. So, making it go viral needed a new perspective and implementation.
Plus, as per the audience segment chosen, it needed to be fun too, rather than just a viable option.
Standing Out in an Overcrowded Feed
The social media feeds, be they from Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube or TikTok, are way too crowded.
Thus, Unilever AI marketing strategy needed a new adaptation to garner user attention.
Scalability
Each platform, be it digital or physical, needed new assets, and thus more than thousands of marketing assets were needed.
Real-time Boost
When engaging Gen Z, the marketing campaigns need to change on the fly or in real time.
It is done to capture the emotions of the target audience and is known as hypermoment marketing.
Solution
Solutions Used
Digital Twins via NVIDIA Omniverse
The FMCG company made Digital Twins of Dove and Crumbl products to experiment as well as find out the best version for their audience.
Digital twins are replicas of a physical product in a digital world which helps in research & development (R&D) of the product.
Generative AI Content Studio
Unilever set up internal Gen AI Content Studios to produce these digital twins.
They could generate thousands of hyperpersonalized visuals and content copies in a week to meet the requirements. It all started from a single digital asset, FYI.
AI-Scale & Influencer Remix
The AI marketing services they leveraged helped them to find 100+ Influencer posts (relevant to them).
Then, these posts were reworked into various social assets such as Stories, Reels and TikToks.
AI-Superpowered Creator Network
Their creator network included more than 10k+ influencers who were managed effectively to ensure alignment in their content with the brand tone and creative guidelines of Unilever.
All of this could not be possible manually, but AI helped them do it.
Strategies Implemented
The Unilever AI marketing strategies were out of this world
- Gen-AI content was used so that custom texts, visuals and videos can be created not in weeks but in days.
- 3D-Digital Twins of the Dove x Crumbl soap were created to craft a never-before-seen Dove soap.
- Be it nano, micro or macro influencers, Unilever used them all to create a web so intricate that it captured not only old users but also first-time buyers.
- To be a recallable brand for Gen Zs, they appeared in relevant social posts across the target spectrum.
- They even utilized their real-time information gathering to optimize ad budgets and achieve ROI results.
- Emotion was the key strategy, as the target audience knew how the cookie crumbles.
- Their latest Dove soaps also had scents to drive home this nostalgia into 100% converted users.
Tools Used
- NVIDIA Omniverse for digital twin creation
- Gen AI Content Studios for automated creative generation
- Social Listening & Performance Tools to deliver the real-time advantage.
- Influencer Management Platforms to ensure effortless creator management
Implementation
Process
- The ideation and conceptualization of this campaign were done in Oct-Nov 2024 along with partner finalization, i.e. Crumbl Cookies.
- NVIDIA Omniverse was leveraged in Dec 2024 to create digital twins which were detailed enough to have unique scents, narratives and much more.
- In the month of January 2025, the Gen-AI content was produced.
- Influencer selection and AI-led engagement were done in February 2025.
- Finally, the Dove x Crumbl campaign was launched in Feb-March 2025.
- The later half of March 2025 was devoted to real-time analysis and optimization via feedback loops.
- Virality and UGC boosts were carried forward in April 2025 for viral marketing with AI.
- And finally, the scaling & performance optimization of the Dove x Crumbl campaign was done in May 2025.
Team Involved
- Mr. Steve McCrystal & Mr. Ryu Yokoi (Unilever, Global AI & Tech Leadership)
- Crumbl’s Doughnut (Brand collab)
- AI teams (NVIDIA & Unilever)
- More than 10K Influencers (TikTok, Instagram & More)
Why It Worked?
It worked because of
- Novelty + Nostalgia mix, which was delivered by cookie-scented soap.
- Scalable Content, i.e., thousands of user-personalized content pieces.
- AI-driven Powerups helped them work on real-time information while keeping the morale as well as the momentum of the marketing team high.
- Human + AI synergy helped in delivering mind-boggling marketing campaigns.
Screenshots
The Results
Dove x Crumbl is a proof of concept for AI marketing services, which led to
- Rapid content creation,
- Higher engagement, and
- New consumer conversions.
Unilever is planning to roll out the AI + Influencer model for all its products due to the massive success, which means
- Worldwide Coverage,
- AI-powered Digital Revolution, and
- A bolstered Brand image for them.
All brands can take this page from Unilever AI Marketing’s book and leverage AI in FMCG industry.
