Unilever’s Foods business has appointed social-first agency SAMY to develop and activate a unified global influencer strategy across 13 markets, as the FMCG giant continues to push its “many to many” approach to brand-building.
The move forms part of Unilever’s wider social-first strategy, which is rooted in social platforms, powered by creators, accelerated by AI and designed to respond to culture in real time.
SAMY will work across key markets including the UK, US, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Germany, France, Poland, Pakistan, Argentina, Canada and Turkey, helping Unilever shape a more connected influencer model across its Foods portfolio.
The agency’s proprietary Maia platform will sit at the centre of the strategy, giving Unilever Foods access to a network of more than 120 million influencers globally, alongside performance data designed to improve targeting and effectiveness.
As part of the remit, SAMY will provide hyper-local market intelligence and cultural insight to inform where Unilever’s brands should appear, who they should partner with and how content can remain locally relevant while fitting within a broader global system.
The agency will also build the frameworks and measurement models needed to help creators and partners represent Unilever brands more consistently across campaigns, with a particular focus on Hellmann’s and Knorr.
Sonsoles Piñeiro Kruik, chief growth officer at SAMY, said the appointment marked a major milestone for the agency.
“Being appointed to support the global pilot of Unilever’s social-first approach within its Foods division is a major milestone for both teams,” she said.
“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 at Unilever Foods, said the partnership reflected the company’s aim to meet consumers where they already are and build brand relevance through culture.
“At Unilever, it’s about going where the consumers are and building desire at scale — growing our brands by embedding them authentically in culture,” she said.
“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.”
She added that the approach would give local teams clearer structures for working with creators, while still allowing room to respond to different tastes, behaviours and cultural nuances in each market.
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