Diving briefs:
- Unilever hopes to accelerate the production speed of its home care business through its new in-house graphic design center, leaning towards generative artificial intelligence (AI) following news shared with marketing diving.
- The CPG giant has teamed up with IPG Studios to develop a unit called Sketch Pro, with the goal of delivering it three times faster than the brand to content. Sketch Pro boasts the ability to leverage multiple AI platforms, including Adobe Firefly and Google Veo 3, turning them into materials ready for consumer testing within two hours.
- Already available in several markets, Sketch Pro is positioned to help Unilever navigate the transition from a linear television-focused marketing production model to a social-first storytelling focused. Unilever has significantly increased spending on social media and influencers, keeping brands cultured.
Dive Insights:
Sketch Pro provides another indication that legacy CPGs are undergoing changes in marketing strategies, as social media becomes a more important channel, allowing AI to have the level of speed needed to maintain a fast scrolling content feed and pace.
Sketch Pro is designed to support home care brands such as Persil/Omo, Comfort, CIF, and Domestos. The brand has long relied on television for Masreach, but is competing with younger consumers who are often not tailored to broadcasting or cables. While television production tends to require long lead times, today's brands are expected to have a lightning response to moments and moments where microtrends are bubbly in culture, such as the gaffe of civil servants who could get caught up in a marketing victory.
Sketch Pro is billed as an internal “center of Excellence,” but Unilever developed the concept at IPG Studios, the creative production agency of Interpublic Group. Sketch Pro emphasizes that it promotes a flexible approach with the goal of pushing creative boundaries rather than being married to a single AI platform. Among the groups' tools is Google's VEO 3 AI video generator. This has recently attracted media attention for its ability to produce surprisingly realistic content.
“The partnership with IPG goes beyond our ability to guide, iterate and deliver high-quality design assets with speed and cultural relevance into ideas, reflecting how consumers are currently involved with the home care category.”
Sketch Pro currently lives in London, Sao Paulo, Mumbai and Jakarta, but Unilever plans to expand its offering to 21 markets by next year. Around Ramadan, the Jakarta Sketch Pro team has recently been able to leverage holiday-related social trends to increase the visibility of brands such as Linso and Nikko in Tiktok by 22.5%, the announcement said.
Unilever focused on generating AI to improve efficiency while reducing costs. In March, Chief Growth and Marketing Director ESI Eggleston Bracey detailed how the company uses AI solutions to create a “digital twin” of its products for brands such as Dove that can easily adapt to channels and formats. At the same time, Unilever is adjusting where it invests in media dollars, and plans to allocate half of its marketing spend to social, while also significantly expanding its work with influencers.
