Unilever Foods selects SAMY for global influencer strategy

Unilever has appointed SAMY to develop and deliver a global influencer strategy for its Foods division, covering 13 markets. The partnership supports Unilever’s shift toward a many-to-many brand-building model centered on social platforms, creators, and AI-driven insights.

The strategy focuses on embedding brands within culture in real time, combining creator-led content with increased investment in digital-first channels. SAMY will play a central role in shaping how Unilever Foods activates influencer marketing at scale.

Data and technology drive influencer strategy

SAMY will deploy its proprietary Maia platform, providing access to a network of more than 120 million influencers worldwide. The platform will also supply performance data to guide campaign effectiveness and optimise partnerships.

This data-led approach aims to strengthen decision-making across markets, ensuring that influencer collaborations align with audience behaviour and platform dynamics.

Multi-market model balances global and local

The agency will operate a glocal model, combining global coordination with local market expertise. Teams across regions will deliver cultural insights to inform how Unilever brands engage audiences in markets including the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The structure is designed to maintain consistency while adapting content to local preferences, helping brands remain relevant across diverse cultural contexts.

Systems support consistency and scale

In addition to strategy, SAMY will build frameworks to guide how creators and partners represent Unilever brands. These include deployment systems and measurement models to track engagement and long-term audience connections across brands such as Hellmann’s and Knorr.

The goal is to create a scalable model that supports both global alignment and local flexibility in influencer activity.

Leadership highlights transformation goals

Sonsoles Pineiro Kruik, Chief Growth Officer, SAMY: "Being appointed to support the global pilot of Unilever’s social-first approach within its Foods division is a major milestone for both teams. Being chosen to enable this transformation within Foods is a major endorsement of SAMY’s influencer marketing expertise within the social universe. Taking on Unilever’s ambition to deliver a strategy that can be translated across 13 markets, within an organisation operating at that scale, is a complex challenge. With teams working across continents, we’ll bring hyper-local intelligence into a shared global system, enabling Unilever to orchestrate influencer activity at scale while ensuring creator partnerships are shaped by the realities of each local market, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach."

Meg Bass, Global Media Manager, Unilever Foods: "At Unilever, it’s about going where the consumers are and building Desire at Scale — growing our brands by embedding them authentically in culture. This means leaning strongly into creators who can help our stories travel further, feel more authentic and resonate more deeply. Working with SAMY will allow us to combine technology and data with deep knowledge of the whole social ecosystem, leading to more informed decisions around where and how we activate creator partnerships across markets. This will give our markets a clearer structure for working with creators, while still allowing them to respond to local behaviours, tastes and cultural context in a way that feels credible."

www.unilever.com

www.samy.com

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