Fresh from her keynote address at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Esi Eggleston Bracey, Unilever’s Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, discusses how we’re transforming our approach to marketing to deliver what we call Desire at Scale.

When it comes to marketing and brand building, everything and nothing is changing.

The fundamentals remain the same. Creativity, the need to really understand consumers, to create differentiated brands and products that add value, and to ensure shoppers know about them and can find them.

The everything that’s changing is people. How we’re entertained, how and where we spend our time, who we trust. All in a world where so many things compete for our attention.

And we’re seeing an incredible revolution in our tools, media, retail and technology. The latest disruptor is AI. We’ve gone from predictions to generative. This year it’s agentic. Next, it will be physical and might even feel human.

For example, imagine a world where you set a budget for your groceries and your agent shops for you. They buy your toothpaste, your shampoo, your food – all based on your preferences and habits. Your choices are outsourced.

You’re not going to think about brands unless they matter to you. So how do we navigate that and really matter to people and not just machines?

If marketing today is about capturing hearts and minds, marketing tomorrow is about capturing hearts and machines. However, to really matter to people and capture their hearts, we need to disrupt with desire. That desire will, in turn, even feed the machines.

Cropped image of the top half of a gold bottle of Nexsus Promend hair treatment.
Generating desire at scale
We’re transforming our approach to marketing to deliver what we’re calling Desire at Scale. Taking our brands beyond meeting people’s needs and wants, to meet their desires – those non-conscious urges that drive people to feel, “I have to have that”.

Traditionally, desire has been exclusive. Luxury products and experiences crafted for the select few. Desire at Scale makes it accessible for the many.

Desire is emotional, not rational. According to cognitive science, it’s feelings that drive desire. Feelings of pleasure, novelty, familiarity, fulfilment, trust and even belonging. All of which are universally relatable, yet deeply personal.

So how do we build a brand that people desire at scale? It starts with a rock-solid brand identity, and expressing that identity creatively in a way that’s relevant to people.

Relevance can’t be bought; it must be built. We have to earn trust, connection and engagement through ideas designed to be shared, not just seen. Ones that resonate locally, through communities, shared interests, people we trust… our everyday worlds.

Staying true to brand beliefs
Dirt Is Good is a great example. Known globally as OMO, Persil and Surf Excel, this is a brand that flexes across 60 markets while staying true to its belief: “Dirt and stains aren’t the enemy – they’re marks of a life well lived.”

We’ve taken this into sports, tapping into the category-driven insight that six out of ten girls fear playing sports due to period leaks. The brand has partnered with Arsenal Women’s team to challenge stigma and redefine blood stains as a mark of pride.

In Saudi Arabia, where period stains are rarely discussed, OMO took a different approach. We used henna artistry as a discreet, deeply personal way to educate women on how to remove blood stains, blending tradition with empowerment.

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Our brands need to be SASSY
Our framework for expressing a brand’s desirability is SASSY: superior science, aesthetics, sensorials, shared by others and young spirited. Let me explain each element.

Superior science builds trust – one of the key cognitive drivers of desire. We’re talking about brands that don’t just use science, they own it. In a way that’s unique and compelling in the category.

Take Cif, our billion-euro home cleaning brand. Our latest product launch – Cif Infinite Clean – addresses the growing search for non-toxic ingredients. Using the science of natural probiotics, this product keeps cleaning for up to three days and makes your home smell like a spa. Its aesthetics are sleek, modern and distinctive for the category, helping elevate the desirability.

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