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First identified more than 150 years ago on a Pennsylvania oilfield, the humble pot of Vaseline might not appear as an clear candidate for online content feeds.

Yet the brand’s emergence as a viral TikTok topic has positioned it at the vanguard of an advertising revolution, seeing big businesses spending big on content creators and reducing expenditure on advertising goods in conventional outlets.

From Oil Rigs to Online Hacks

The petroleum jelly was first manufactured in the 1870s by a chemist, Robert Cheeseborough, who noticed oil rig workers applying to their skin with a derivative of drilling. Today, a spree of user-generated videos have recorded its extensive utilization in “life hacks”.

It has been touted as a solution for polishing footwear or prolonging the scent of perfume, as well as a fix for squeaky doors. It has even been deployed to combat the nuisance of crisp flavouring sticking to fingers.

Leveraging the Buzz

Detecting the product’s new life online, strategists within the corporation enhanced the tricks by tasking their in-house experts with verification and sharing the findings with influencers.

Suggestions that it lessened the burn from hot food on the lips were confirmed. Similarly supported were ideas it could extend fragrance and revive leather bags. Claims that it would bleach teeth or extend lashes were refuted.

The ‘Social Listening’ Strategy

Billboards and TV ads would once have formed the bulk of its promotional efforts. However, this online trend has helped convince executives to turbocharge spending on content creators.

This observation of social channels to inform business strategy has been dubbed “social listening”. Fernando Fernández, recently appointed, has stated the intention is to spend a full fifty percent of its huge ad budget on digital creator content.

Evolving With Audience Behavior

The company's social media lead, who is spearheading the social media effort, said the company was merely adjusting to novel methods of reaching consumers. She said participating on platforms “without dampening the fun” was crucial.

“How do brands authentically become part of the conversation? That’s always what we’ve been trying to do as brands, since the era of community gossip and discussing household products.

“There’s this moving away from a mass communication approach, where we would just transmit messages … Now it’s many conversations, various groups. The evolution of platform algorithms means that these communities feel niche, but they’re not.

“Having your brand advocated by users, mentioned by individuals, that is how you can build trust and relevance. Content makers are key. This word-of-mouth strategy is being amplified.”

A Seismic Media Shift

This plan mirrors profound shifts happening in audience habits, with the youth demographic allocating more attention to social media platforms than legacy broadcast and print media.

The transition is visible in drops in traditional media advertising. Within the United Kingdom, advertising income for leading TV channels have fallen by more than £600m in real terms since 2019.

Influencer Marketing Expansion

This further signifies a media convergence as corporations essentially turn into content studios, linking up with numerous influencers to boost their products.

Leon Harlow said: “Obviously there’s a flow of audiences away from some legacy media and they are dedicating far more hours to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube than they are viewing scheduled television or reading physical magazines.

“A lot of brands are telling us consumers have more faith in suggestions from the creators they engage with compared to commercial messages. This is a persistent pattern.”

He said brands could also save money by focusing on influencers over large-scale legacy ad buys, which also allows them to tweak their content more easily to see what works.

The approach is growing. Promotional expenditure on the creator economy is increasing four times faster than total media spending. Stateside, it has over doubled since 2021 and is projected to reach substantial figures in 2025.

Traditional Media's Continued Place

Despite the huge changes, industry figures said they believed broadcast ads retained significant importance to play, as broadcasters retained the power to drive countrywide discourse.

The executive noted: “One of the highest return-on-investment media opportunities is still the Super Bowl. It’s not about those broadcasters saying: ‘Our relevance has faded.’ It’s about who’s capturing attention … I think there’s 100% a place for them.”