The Heart of Growth: Leading with Purpose in a Performance World

At Smartly Advance, Esi Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer of Unilever, sat down with Joi-Marie McKenzie, Editor in Chief of the Life team at Business Insider, for a wide-ranging conversation on how iconic brands scale without losing sight of purpose.

Bracey outlined how Unilever is reframing brand building for an era of fractured attention, AI-driven execution, and consumer expectations for authenticity. Her message was clear: growth is sustainable when values are at the center.

Leadership in an Attention-Starved World

Bracey began by noting how scarce attention has become — for both consumers and employees. Microsoft research shows that average human attention spans have fallen from 12 seconds to just 8.2. In a world where 5.4 billion people are on social media and new platforms emerge daily, leaders face dual responsibilities: creating clarity for teams internally and simplicity for consumers externally.

Unilever’s new growth ambition, which Bracey called “desire and scale,” reflects this. The goal is to move beyond functional messaging to create products and stories that people actively want — not because they need them, but because they feel emotionally connected.

From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many

Traditional CPG marketing was built on one-to-many communication: a single message broadcast widely. That model, Bracey argued, is no longer fit for purpose. Today, reach and engagement come through a many-to-many dynamic where influencers, creators, consumers, and brands all co-create narratives.

She illustrated this with the Vaseline Verified campaign. By tapping into consumer-generated “hacks” for Vaseline, Unilever worked with influencers and scientists to validate or debunk tips. The campaign generated 63 million social impressions and lifted Vaseline sales by 43%, demonstrating the power of letting communities carry the story while brands provide trust and credibility.

AI as Enabler, Not Strategy

On AI, Bracey struck a pragmatic tone: “Don’t let the tools hijack you.” AI is essential to scale personalization and precision, but it’s not where advantage comes from. Competitive edge lies in how brands use data, creativity, and storytelling to connect emotionally with people.

She spotlighted Unilever’s use of digital twins to create hyper-realistic, 360-degree product images. These twins reduce production costs by half, double speed to market, and deliver higher-quality assets for retail, e-commerce, and global campaigns. Yet Bracey framed them as a means, not an end: AI helps scale execution, but it’s human storytelling that differentiates.

Purpose That Resonates

Bracey emphasized that brand positioning must now be anchored in cultural conversations. Unilever’s new “Brand Verse” framework guides teams to identify which societal issues and community conversations their brands have the right to engage in.

She cited Dove’s Whole Body Deodorant campaign, which tapped into real letters from consumers about body confidence and remixed a classic rap track to make the message culturally relevant. The campaign demonstrated how purpose, when authentically expressed, drives both emotional resonance and commercial results.

Why It Matters

Bracey closed with a reminder: in marketing, “everything and nothing is changing.” The fundamentals — clarity, distinctiveness, emotional benefit — remain the same. What has shifted is the context: fragmented attention, algorithmic distribution, and cultural expectations of brands.

For marketers, the lessons were clear:

• Anchor growth in values and purpose. Functional benefits alone are no longer enough.

• Design for many-to-many. Let communities, creators, and consumers amplify brand stories.

• Adopt AI as infrastructure. Use it to scale execution, but never at the expense of human-led storytelling.

Unilever’s blueprint shows that in a performance-driven world, real growth starts at the intersection of clarity, culture, and purpose.

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