Unilever has made headlines for it’s new, creator-forward marketing approach, pledging to spend 50% of the company’s media budget on social channels and increasing influencer marketing investments twentyfold.

While working with influencers to create branded assets is nothing new, relying on influencers to heavily shape your brand narrative is a massive shift. Rather than relying on a creative team of copywriters, designers, and directors to create a carefully crafted brand narrative and ad campaign, they are shifting to working with hundreds of creators, each with their own voice, niche, and community of followers. The brand will not be defined by a singular voice, but a global community.

In recent years we have seen that traditional corporate brand messages resonate less and less. Consumers have become skeptical of things that look and feel like “ads” and seek recommendations from someone they trust.

That’s why for many brands, the best performing ads are not brand-led, they are creator-led. If a creator you follow and trust shows up in your feed talking about a brand, even one you may have not previously thought was for you, the path to consideration and even purchase opens.

Will Unilever be a trendsetter, with more brands shifting to a creator-first model? Or will a large focus on creators begin to dilute the brands’ core narrative? We’ll be watching our social feeds to find out.