Engineering the Future of Marketing: Esi Eggleston Bracey’s Unilever Playbook

Summary

Marketing Vanguard: Episode Summary Episode: Engineering the Future of Marketing: Esi Eggleston Bracey’s Unilever Playbook
Host: Jenny Rooney, Adweek
Guest: A.C. Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, Unilever
Release Date: June 5, 2025

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1. Introduction and Background

In this insightful episode of Marketing Vanguard, Jenny Rooney welcomes A.C. Eggleston Bracey, the Chief Growth and Marketing Officer of Unilever. Bracey shares her unconventional journey from engineering to becoming a leading figure in global marketing. She emphasizes the importance of understanding human needs and delivering tailored marketing messages to meet those needs.

Notable Quote:

"I never set out to be a business executive or a marketer. I was trained as an engineer... I discovered that marketing is about solving people and business problems."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [00:52]

2. From Engineering to Marketing: A Serendipitous Journey

Bracey recounts how a chance decision to attend a marketing information session at Dartmouth College redirected her career path. Her analytical background as an engineer provided a strong foundation for marketing, blending problem-solving skills with creative thinking.

Notable Quote:

"You need the rigor and discipline to make sure you're sharp on what people want... but that alone is not enough. We need the creativity."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [05:17]

3. The Duality of Modern Marketing: Analytical and Creative

Bracey discusses the evolving role of marketing, stating that while the fundamentals of understanding consumer needs remain unchanged, the methods and tools have transformed. She highlights the necessity of combining analytical rigor with creativity to navigate the complex, data-driven landscape of today's marketing environment.

Key Points:

• Consistency in Fundamentals: Understanding and addressing consumer needs.
• Adaptation to Change: Managing attention scarcity, high consumer expectations, and technological advancements.
• Balanced Skill Set: Importance of both hard (analytical) and soft (creative) skills in marketing.

Notable Quote:

"Breakthrough comes sometimes in paradox. It's the combination, the power of the and that I believe make the best marketer."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [07:45]

4. Building and Leading Effective Marketing Teams

When asked about the qualities Bracey seeks in team members, she emphasizes passion, analytical skills, subject matter expertise, leadership, agility, and creativity. She believes that passionate individuals who align their skills with organizational values are crucial for driving marketing success.

Key Points:

• Passion and Commitment: Essential for navigating the dynamic nature of marketing.
• Analytical Rigor: Critical for data-driven decision-making.
• Creativity and Leadership: Necessary for standing out in competitive markets and adapting to cultural shifts.

Notable Quote:

"Our marketers need to have that mindset of agility, of growth and of leadership."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [09:09]

5. Purpose-Driven Marketing and Corporate Responsibility

Bracey delves into the significance of purpose in modern marketing. She asserts that purposeful leadership and clear brand propositions are vital for resonating with consumers and shaping cultural narratives. Additionally, she underscores Unilever's responsibility as a global leader to grow categories ethically and sustainably.

Key Points:

• Intentional Leadership: Aligning business goals with clear, purposeful missions.
• Cultural Relevance: Integrating brand messages with cultural passion points to capture consumer attention.
• Corporate Responsibility: Elevating category standards and contributing positively to global markets.

Notable Quote:

"We have a deep responsibility... to grow and build categories and that makes a difference for retailers and for people who use our products."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [25:48]

6. Leveraging AI in Marketing: Enhancing Creativity and Efficiency

Addressing the role of AI, Bracey views it as an enabler rather than a competitor to creativity. She provides examples of how Unilever utilizes AI to scale creative ideas, gain real-time insights, and optimize marketing performance. Campaigns like "Vaseline Verified" and Dove's innovative product launches illustrate the synergy between AI and creative marketing strategies.

Key Points:

• Content Personalization: Using AI tools to tailor messages to diverse consumer segments.
• Insight Generation: Leveraging AI for real-time data insights to inform creative strategies.
• Performance Optimization: Shifting marketing spend based on AI-driven performance metrics.

Notable Quote:

"AI is an amplification of marketing... it will never take away the power of the idea you have."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [30:18]

7. Future Outlook and Upcoming Initiatives

Looking ahead, Bracey expresses excitement for upcoming events like Cannes, anticipating a focus on balancing creativity with performance. She highlights recent successful campaigns, such as Dove's "Whole Body" deodorant and the viral "Crumble Collection," demonstrating Unilever's commitment to innovation and cultural relevance.

Key Points:

• Cannes Highlights: Expecting a melding of creative excellence and performance-driven strategies.
• Dove's Evolution: Continued success through adaptive campaigns that resonate with contemporary cultural trends.
• Scalability and Culture: Ensuring brands remain relevant by keeping pace with rapid cultural shifts.

Notable Quote:

"For our brands to be relevant and grow, they must be right there at the speed of life and even ahead shaping culture."
—A.C. Eggleston Bracey [38:08]

Conclusion

A.C. Eggleston Bracey provides a comprehensive overview of modern marketing's challenges and opportunities, emphasizing the harmonious blend of analytical and creative approaches. Her leadership at Unilever showcases the impact of purpose-driven strategies and the effective integration of AI in enhancing marketing performance. This episode serves as an invaluable resource for marketers aspiring to drive growth and innovation in a rapidly evolving industry.

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Key Takeaways:

• Balanced Skill Sets: Successful marketers embody both analytical and creative talents.
• Purpose and Responsibility: Aligning brand purpose with corporate responsibility fosters deeper consumer connections.
• AI as a Tool: Leveraging AI can enhance creativity and optimize marketing strategies without overshadowing human ingenuity.
• Cultural Agility: Staying attuned to cultural shifts is essential for maintaining brand relevance and driving growth.

For those seeking to stay ahead in the marketing landscape, A.C. Eggleston Bracey’s insights offer a roadmap for integrating traditional marketing principles with modern technological advancements.

Transcript

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[Jenny Rooney]

Today.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

In marketing, I say everything and nothing is changing. And how can both of those be true? The nothing that doesn't change and has always been this way is about understanding people and what people need and then delivering a product and a marketing message to them to help them understand why that product meets their needs.

[Jenny Rooney]

Hi everyone and welcome to the Marketing Vanguard Podcast. I'm Jenny Rooney here at Adweek and I'm thrilled today to be joined by AC Eggleston Bracey. She's the Chief Growth and Marketing Officer of Unilever. A.C. welcome.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Thank you. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

[Jenny Rooney]

It's great to see you and this is long overdue, I would say. So I'm happy to have you here on the podcast. Looking forward to seeing you soon. In a few weeks. Cans right around the corner. Is it crazy?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

My, how time flies.

[Jenny Rooney]

Time flies. And this is as everybody listening perhaps knows. I mean, what a convening moment in the industry for so many people who make their livelihoods in the advertising, marketing, brand space. Certainly it's a great global stage and we can get into that in a sec. But I'm excited just to talk to you. Obviously, A.C. you have such an extraordinary resume. You've had dramatic impact in the beauty and personal care categories. You're certainly at Unilever now. You've been at Proctor and Gambler. You've also been a vocal advocate for equity, inclusion and purpose driven brands. Tell me a little bit about you. Maybe something that people wouldn't otherwise know. What's something surprising that you wouldn't know about AC from your LinkedIn profile? Let's start there.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Well, my role is Chief Growth and Marketing Officer for Unilever and I've spent years in marketing and in business and packaged goods marketing. But what a lot of people don't know is, is I never set out to be a business executive or a marketer. I was trained as an engineer. My goal was to be an MD, PhD in biomedical engineering. I was a bit of a scientist. I was a numbers geek, if you will, and I happened upon marketing. I actually went to an information session when I was at university. I went to Dartmouth College by accident, because someone invited me to a session. I was busy, had no intention of going to rush them off the phone, picked up the phone at that time, I'm dating myself, we had answering machines. And I would have normally let it go to the answering machine, but I picked up and I was running late to class. And I was invited to this session and I said, yes, I'll go. And because I always try to do what I say I'll do, I went to the session super late and I discovered brand management or marketing. And from that session I thought I'd love to do that because I learned it's about problem solving. That's why I was a scientist and wanted to do engineering, because I love the analytics of solving problems and I loved people. And that's why I thought medicine plus engineering, biomedical engineering, because I thought it was about people. And I learned that marketing, you could do that. You could solve people problems, you could solve business problems. You get to work with teams of people. So a lot of people don't realize when they meet me or see me that I'm really an engineer turned into marketer and business executive. Hence the growth and marketing officer.

[Jenny Rooney]

I love that it's so apropos now when so much of the dialogue and narrative around chief marketing officers is that they must necessarily be business growth drivers. And by the way, they must rely on metrics and numbers and data to make the case for marketing as a growth center, not a cost center. But because you brought that up and you tell that story about how you sort of serendipitously fell upon marketing, it's interesting. And I've, by the way, spent a lot of time with the folks at Tuck at Dartmouth. I assume you spent time at Tuck. So I've been on that campus many times, had a lot of programs with the extraordinary faculty there. And by the way, there's actually a pretty incredible roster of alumni who are in major leadership roles in marketing who have come out of the Tuck School. So it's credit to them that they have such great practitioners like yourself out in the world doing amazing things. Let's talk about that, though, because it's funny, right or wrong. I think there's an assumption in business school that marketing is the softer skill focus. Right? You don't go into marketing because you love numbers. You might go into finance because you feel like finance is the more numbers focused aspect of an mba, for example, or of an undergraduate business education. But how did you wed your prowess as somebody who had been an engineer and understanding that Engineering. Talk a little bit more about that and how you brought the aptitude that you have to have as an engineer to marketing. And where do you think people might be getting it wrong who don't have that mindset?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Because what you asked is so important and it's a big myth. So first I'm going to start with how I think about marketing and then I'm going to go back into the skills and then what you learn in business school today in marketing I say everything and nothing is changing. And how can both of those be true? The nothing that doesn't change and has always been this way is about understanding people and what people need and then delivering a product and a marketing message to them to help them understand why that product meets their needs. And then in marketing, it's using that to create value for your enterprise, your company. So in publicly traded companies, you don't market for altruism. You're marketing to help people and to be rewarded with growth and rewarding your shareholders because of that. So how do you do that in the nothing and then how do you pivot to the everything which is today? People's lives are changing because we're starved for attention. We have so much that's going on. We have high expectations, we won't make a sacrifice for our needs. We expect our individual needs to be met. All those things are changing. Tech is changing, data orientation is changing. How do you reconcile that nothing that is changing? Understanding people, creating value for people and for your business and then the whole dynamic that's changing, how do you navigate through that? You need discipline, analytical thinking, data orientation, performance impact orientation. Because every cent counts. And what else do you need? Creativity. We're all in some ways competing for the same consumer. Importantly, we're all trying to help the same people. So we have to stand out and capture people's attention. How do you do that? Creativity, you cut through. Every moment is a creative moment and every moment is a commerce moment. That creativity. So back to your question around business school and analytics marketing, if you look at it the old fashioned way, and that it's soft, it's waste, it's fluff. A long time ago, decades ago, people would say half of my marketing investment is working, the other half isn't. I can't tell you what is and what isn't. That's because we didn't have good data. Today we have incredible data and technology that's not acceptable. Every cent counts. So you need the rigor and discipline to make sure you're sharp on what people want. We have so much data now in terms of insights and that every message we're sending is working. And it's up to us if it's working better on one social media platform than another, that we're shifting our dollars there, or if it's working better in a store environment, if it's physical or retail, that we put our money there. So in summary, we need that analytical discipline which I love, of course, as an engineer and problem solving. But that alone is not enough. We need the creativity. So the answer is it is both the hard and the soft. And breakthrough comes sometimes in paradox. It's the combination, the power of the and that I believe make the best marketer. So I would say don't sleep on marketing if you've got analytical rigor, but also don't think that marketing's not for you if you're creative. Let's bring both of those together.

[Jenny Rooney]

I have to think that anybody who's listening to this, who is not yet a CMO but might be aspiring to be one, specifically wanting to work on your team AC might have the question come to mind, what do you look for? What would you want in a team member in your organization?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Well, one thing I think is underrated, that I value really highly is passion. I really believe in the idea of the business, of you. The work we do is hard. It is all encompassing today because it's so dynamic. So how do you make the most of that? It's really important to be passionate about what you do and to match your skill set with what the organization values. That's what I mean, the business of you. You bring yourself into the business. So one thing I look for is passion. And in that it's passion, impact and commitment. Then, as you'd expect from what I was saying earlier, I look for analytical rigor, problem solving skills, those hard skills. I look for subject matter expertise, and then I look for leadership and mindset and creativity. What I mean by leadership and mindset, I keep saying culture is moving at breakneck speed. Technology is moving at breakneck speed. So if we are going to deliver brands that keep up with people in culture and what people need, want, desire, then we must be right there with them. So how do we do that? Our marketers? What makes Unilever so special is our people and our brands. So our marketers need to have that mindset of agility, of growth and of leadership. So I look for those what you might call softer skills. And then the creativity, as I mentioned, which is the Companion to the analytical thinking and rigor. So passion, subject matter, expertise, analytical rigor, leadership, agility, and creative mindset.

[Jenny Rooney]

It's all of the above. I mean, it is such a tall order, but that's why everybody who's a marketer is a unicorn. I mean, it's such a uniquely challenging but also exciting opportunity for anybody. I mean, this is where I think marketing has a marketing problem. I mean, I do think that there's something around the narrative of marketing and also of the CMO role that we continue to work on, because it's probably the one thing that's been left behind in terms of a storytelling aspect, that it still continues to be something that's elusive, unfortunately, Perhaps to some CEOs and some boards, but certainly there's organizations that get it and they understand the power of marketing. Obviously, Procter and Gamble and Unilever. I mean, you are at and have been at two of the world's most influential marketers, full stop. Tell me a little bit about your early experiences at Procter and Gamble, how that prepared you for your role that you're in now at Unilever.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Yeah, so I started my career in 1991, and I think about today in Unilever, and I'll go back to the beginning of my career. There's a scale and complexity to the business. So when you think about marketing, it's not just the idea of marketing, it's where it's. You do what I like to call brand building. And Unilever is almost a 61 billion euro company. We have about 400 brands. We serve 3.4 billion people around the world. We're at 190 countries. Unilever is known as being one of the most diverse companies in terms of its international footprint, if you will, even more so than Procter and Gamble, all the different languages. So when you say what has prepared me for the role that I'm in today, I think about this breadth and impact that Unilever have. And then we've got what we call our power brands, about 30 of them that represent 75% of the business. So learning how to manage that complexity, that's what's exciting about the role I'm in. So I think starting in 1991, I started on a brand. And what I learned again, is how to bring this engineering discipline into creating clarity around what people need and making sure with that clarity that you address those needs. I learned that on the brand. My first brand was a brand called Comet, Comet Cleanser. It's not as widely known today do you know Comet cleanser?

[Jenny Rooney]

I do.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

You do? You know, there was Ajax back in the day. Yeah.

[Jenny Rooney]

I grew up with Comet in our household. Yeah.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

At that point in time, 95% of America had Comet under the sink. Yeah. I built my foundation learning that discipline, and I think I got that in 1991. Then I evolved and learned more creativity. I'm proud of having the privilege of creating the brand Febreze. So I learned how to build a brand in its core based on, again, this problem solving, applying my engineering. And then I came into my creativity being pointed to a project at the time. How do we deliver our year 2000 goals? How do we expand what it means to be fabric softening in 2000? So this was in the probably mid-90s. And I was appointed to a project with a blank piece of paper and came up with six or seven new business ideas and worked with a team and create a Febreze because we realized the opportunity was really cleaning odors out of fabrics that weren't really dirty. That ultimately went into truly cleaning, not covering up odors in the air.

[Jenny Rooney]

There's an efficiency play there too, because you're helping people not clean. If there's. If it's not really dirty, you're not wasting all the water and all the effort and the detergent products to clean. If it's just something that you want to take out of the air, I mean, that's a help. That's a purpose.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

There's a purpose in that. There's efficiency. And there's also what I have found over the years, efficiency is sometimes better as a secondary or tertiary message. You almost want to solve problems. The biggest breakthroughs are in solving problems that can't be addressed. So if you think about a sofa where Febreze started, you can't put that in a washing machine. And not everyone has the ability to have their upholstery cleaned. That is more of a luxury or a higher income opportunity. So Fabrice started with, wow, I can finally, if I'm living in a trailer home or I have pets or I smoke there odors around all the time. And I don't feel good about my home because people come in. I may not be able to smell it, but I think they're smelling my pet or my cigarettes. So you solve that problem and then you see all those other productivity benefits. Wow. I have this blazer. I don't need to take it to the dry cleaner. So I learned that market expansion, how to create, and then why I talked about the complexity of unilever I got experiences across different markets. I started in the US and then I spent eight years of my time at Procter and Gamble. I was there for almost 25 years and I spent time outside of the US so I got to get the diversity. I ran the global makeup business and we were in a nearly at that time, 100 markets. So from the Middle east to Asia to Europe. And so I had the opportunity to get the breadth of exposure to different businesses. Even before makeup, I did a project called Acorn, which is expanding fabric softeners into hand wash markets that were in Africa. So what I learned there was the discipline of building a brand like Comet and expanding it, then creating new business and breakthrough kind of ideas like Febreze and then learning different markets. Although P and G is very more US centric, while Unilever is really diverse. It gave me the foundation to travel across markets and across brands and portfolios, working from laundry to fabric softening to personal care and soaps and into beauty. That also has allowed the background for Unilever's beautiful, diverse portfolio.

[Jenny Rooney]

So much in that really quickly. I'm just curious, when you were at P and G, was that during the time that Jim Stengel was there?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

I did overlap with Jim Stangle. I was there for so long that I was there well past Stangle, but I did, who is a friend. I adore Jim Stengel. I've been on his podcast as well.

[Jenny Rooney]

I'm going to get him on here. So we're going to do a little cross promotion.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Yes. Tell Jim I say hi. He's a really good podcast. Very good interview. He really does his homework. He blew me away with the background research he'd done. But of course we did know each other back then. I left Proctor Gamble when P and G sold the makeup business to Coty. And I was really passionate about the makeup business and excited to go to Coty. That was also an incredible opportunity. Again, outside of the US complexity of brands. It was a really big merger at the time. And then I came to Unilever as the president of the US business. It was the first time in a while I was leading a market. Actually, I was running the beauty and personal care business and then I became the CEO of the personal care business and then the president of the US So that was my entry into Unilever. That's more than seven years ago and now into my current role since 2024.

[Jenny Rooney]

And Keith Reid was global CMO when you arrived, is that correct?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

He sure was. He was the global CMO when I joined in the U.S. so I mean.

[Jenny Rooney]

Just the legacy of leadership in both places. My question is as you come into your role and again, just to clarify, you've been in the current role that you have now for how many years?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

I joined entered this current role in January of 24. So it's been about a year and a half.

[Jenny Rooney]

So again, you're bringing a unique leadership style. Right. And I mentioned to people who had signature leadership styles, how would you define yours? And what did you realize was the opportunity for you personally to kind of come in and obviously honor the legacy of marketing leadership that had been there, yet at the same time, put your own signature on it.

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[Jenny Rooney]

How did you think about that?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Yeah, so you asked two questions that I think are important. One is about style, which is how I lead, and the other is what I want it to accomplish in this role. And I'll start with that one. It's indicated in my title, which is chief growth and Marketing Officer. For me, the gift that I want to give in this role is, is to focus on how our brands will grow and how they will grow through marketing. It's putting marketing back at the center of the company and as the growth driver for our business. Not sales, not driving efficiencies and productivity. Yes, we want all of those, but we are a company of brands. As I mentioned, 400 brands focus on 30. Our growth, our future, our sustainability will be based on how we grow our brands. There are different kinds of marketing to grow brands. Performance marketing, traditional marketing wanted to create a blending of those, which is brand growth marketing. And my goal and my role is to move Unilever into the next generation of marketing so that we can maximize the opportunities for growth. That is my mission and my commitment. And it's doing it through the brands, not as a corporate push down. We have five different business groups that organize our brands by product category. So we have our personal care business, that is deodorants, it's skin cleansing and it's oral care. So those is an example. Of course we have our food business that's in categories of our home business have a range of different categories, if you can imagine, from laundry to household cleaning. But my goal, each of those have different brands and different categories. They compete in and is working with those marketers because we have CMOs in our businesses and brand leads to arm them with the tools they need to grow in this modern world, which requires a shift in our marketing model. In the old world, everything that is changing people's attention was focused. When I grew up, you know, a hundred years ago, we'd sit down and watch the Love Boat or the Cosby show. All sit down. At a certain time, you knew a network and a time so prime time, you were captivated. It rarely works like that today. There's so many options, so many streaming platforms. So in this new world, the old world was you could sit down and have one message that communicated to millions of people watching a high rated show. In this new world of all this proliferation, the average consumer is on six to eight social media platforms alone. So not to mention the streaming services. How you communicate in that world at scale needs to move from a one to many model to a many to many model with many people that communicate to many other people. A brand message can't be a one message to many. You personalize those messages so that if it's a message about your hair, me with locks and blonde hair will get a different message than someone that may have shorter hair, finer hair or even wavy hair. You have many messages to many people. So the idea of the next generation of marketing for growth and the gift that I want to give in the legacy in this role is around moving us to a new way of broad scale reach, engagement and conversion. Shifting from the one to many model to the many to many model. That is my focus and that's what we've been doing which involves embedding our brands and culture. And I'm super excited by the progress we're making there. In terms of my personal style, similar to I talked about hard and soft, analytical and creativity, I like to embody that in my personal style. I like to consider myself a human centric leader. I'm deeply curious. So the soft side, I like to listen and understand people, understand their problems, the business problems. Some might say that's soft because I'm listening, I'm curious, I'm bringing teams together, I'm asking people, so what do you think about this problem? And then there's hard. Once I go through the inquiry and understand that soft bit, I make choices clear. This is where we're going. I think the best leaders create inspiration. They create crystal clarity. Then they help people do their jobs. So I'm a leader, I say my purpose. That's something at unilever that as a legacy of Unilever, you don't just say, hi, my name is A.C. you say, hi, my name is A.C. and my purpose is. And for me, it's breaking barriers and it's inspiring greatness. So my style is both human centric, but also decisive. And I do that through trying to provide inspiration, inspiring about the future and the vision and where we can go, which I talk about in this next generation of marketing. Clarity on what success in winning looks like, because that's what people want. What are you expecting me to do? And then I try to create tools and frameworks to help people do their job.

[Jenny Rooney]

I love that I have to ask the question about influence, because obviously being at the companies that you are, there's just tremendous influence. And a bit ago you talked about the reach and the breadth and the number of brands. And certainly with Unilever, the global footprint, with that comes just massive opportunity for influence. Right. And I think brand marketers, especially in this day and age, there is an opportunity to tell stories. And frankly, Unilever has such a legacy. And that gets to your passion around purpose. That word is used so much that I want to have you unpack it a little bit against the backdrop of what I referenced, which is influence, meaning you have such a platform for driving adoption and selling your products, but also telling narratives. Right. And sort of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist in a way that can be very meaningful. So there's a lot that I just threw at you there, but I think you know where I'm going. It's. How do you regard that?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Yeah. So there are a few things that your question sparked for me. One, let's talk about purpose. I believe in purposeful leaders. And by purposeful, I mean intentional. Business is people. So we all need to be crystal clear on what we're playing for, what we're in it for. And I think purpose helps define for you what you're in it for. It's really important that's matched with the business need. The other bit on purpose for me on brand is clarity of what your proposition is. And where we're even moving is the purpose and culture. The role you play in culture, the role you play for people that should be centered around your product, but also people's passion points. Because we're all vying for attention on product benefits. We compete in very competitive categories. Right. Populated, crowded categories. And today in the digital age, everyone has access to a business. Right. Decades ago, that wasn't always the case because you needed a certain amount of scale to enter into retail. Now, that is not necessarily the case. So being very clear around your purpose and culture, the role you play in culture to capture people's attention is really important. So I wanted to make that point on purpose. Purposeful leaders that are intentional and brands with clarity in the proposition and where they play to help people with the product, but also how they capture people's attention in areas beyond the product which are their cultural passion points. If it's entertainment, if I'm a swifty, if I like to cook, if I like to tell jokes, these are all areas of high engagement and in culture. So that's the first bit on purpose. And then the other you talked is responsibility. The responsibility we have as a big company, as a scaled company and an impact. Our brands, Dove, Hellman's Canor degree, it's known rexona globally and it's even bigger outside of the US in terms of its market share position. These are all brands that are category leaders. So we have a role in growing categories. We have a role in expanding those categories and making sure we're raising the bar for what success looks like in beauty with brands like Dove. Other parts of the world, you don't see as much in the US or like brands like Sun Silk and Tresemme. So we have a deep responsibility to grow and build categories and that makes a difference for retailers. And we have a deep responsibility for elevating for people who use our products what that category can offer. Like raising the bar. Now raising the bar. It's about making our brands not just needed or wanted, but desirable. We're building desirability at scale and that is our role as category leaders. So we have a deep responsibility. Right. We have responsibility to the markets that we participate in. One of our other large markets is India, Hindustan, Unilever. We have a huge presence and a responsibility in growing and developing talent in the market, creating opportunities for employment, et cetera. So we do take our role, especially when we're big in markets. Is being a responsible corporate citizen. We take on that role as well.

[Jenny Rooney]

Yeah. And listen, I can't ask that question of every CMO because not every CMO is overseeing a brand or a business that has that reach, obviously, or has that scope. It's a huge responsibility, but it's special. Right. The ability to know that you oversee that kind of remit with so much impact and so much influence, as I said, and responsibility. So there's so much more there to unpack. I'm mindful of your time because I know that we don't have all the time in the world. I feel like we're going to have to have a part two of this at some point, AC because there's just so much. I guess if I have to ask the last question, I do want to ask you about AI only because you especially having come from an engineering background, which is how we started this conversation. So fascinating. In the last couple of weeks I've had conversations with folks around. Is storytelling dead in the era of AI? What does this mean for. And I feel like there's such a push, pull in a desire or knee jerk response to pit AI against something else. For some reason we as humans, we always sort of place people in these polarized spots. The opposing forces seem to be intriguing. I'm curious your thoughts. Do you think AI is an oppositional force to marketing?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

The short answer is I think it's an enabler in the world of technology and AI in the everything and nothing that's changing. What matters most is the power of a creative idea, the power of clarity of the brand and the creative idea. And we have so many amazing examples of where in this mini to many model we are unlocking the power of creative ideas and then AI can be used to help expand that idea. So let me give you an example. One idea that I just, I'm so proud of is I don't know if you've seen. Are you Vaseline? I call it the Wonder Jelly. We have a campaign, an effort, I hate to call it a campaign called Vaseline Verified. Have you seen that?

[Jenny Rooney]

I have. It's amazing.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

Okay. I love Vaseline Verified because this is one five, five, year old brand and that brand is still breaking the Internet because it's taken people and its ideas, it's hacks all there. You might think crazy hacks from trapping pollen during hay fever season, making your fragrance last longer. And we actually verify those hacks. Some we say are Vaseline approved and some of them aren't. But there's so many different messages. How do you take that content and scale them to all the people that are relevant? You have modular AI content tools that help do that. We can get that message out through fast and with speed. We also use AI to get insights into the hacks are happening that people are most interested in. And then we can go have our real scientists verify those. There's so many positives that AI play but it will never take away the power of the idea you have that you can get so many insights in real time. You can also back to where we Started with performance. You make sure every set you're set spending is getting maximized. What platforms are responding best to the idea? How do you shift your media from one platform to another? What ideas are getting the best response? All that comes from AI. I am a big fan of responsible AI is an amplification of marketing. So we've got Vaseline Verify. There's so many amazing examples our team has. You've seen Hellman's, of course, in the super bowl, in the big game. We've always been doing breakthrough work. This is our fifth year now. But this year with the presence of AI and our focus on culture at scale, it went even further. We started with a post that seeded and set into culture this idea of Bill and Meg, Bill Kristol and Meg Ryan and people were like, what is there going to be a sequel? What's happening? Because we posted them coming out of Kat's Diner and then started just feeding in new content and they were like, what is this Hellman's? So we had captive audience and demand for the super bowl concept before it even came out. So we're able to connect with retailers on that. Back to performance and driving. This was a big driver in our U.S. hellman's business in the quarter. The support we got from retail and the pull through of this cultural moment. The earned. This is one of our best performances in terms of earned media. Now if you're in the U.S. you could not miss it so much. So it gave who, Dylan, Meg a spot at the Oscars.

[Jenny Rooney]

Oh my gosh.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

These are the kinds of things you can use AI to further get reach behind. You use influencers because they're organic and authentic for earned. But when you move into paid AI helps amplify that even earned, you can see which influencers are working best for you. So I'm a big fan of AI. Not at the expense of the idea. We also used an AI tool in this Hellman's example to help you figure out what is in your fridge that you can use Helman's for. So you have these shoppable recipes to make this delicious, irresistible sandwich moment. So I'm going on and on here. I hope you hear that I'm quite passionate about the use of AI when you have a great creative idea, a clear problem to solve that you can apply AI to.

[Jenny Rooney]

Honestly, ac, you mentioned SQL. I hope you and I have a sequel. As I said before, I think we should do a part two because there's just so much here. So we're going to leave our listeners Wanting more at this point, but I'm thrilled to have had the last half hour with you. I look forward to our next conversation. There's so much to unpack. Cannes is coming up. Anything in particular you're looking forward to or what do you think is going to be the headline coming out of Cannes this year?

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

I think it's going to be a different can because, wow. I mean, there's so much happening in the world right now, and I think this tension between creativity and performance. There's some that have viewed Cannes in the past as being a place for creative ideas, but those creative ideas actually land in the market. Or are they just for Cannes submissions? And then you have the Fes that have been all about performance. I think can has been on the mission to like the business community is to make sure people see the power of creativity in driving business. I think that message is crescendoing this year and we'll see more. So I'm excited about that. The other thing I'm always excited about on a Unilever level is Dubb, our biggest brand. And it's always a big moment for us. Last year, we kicked off our 20th year of real beauty, and we're going to conclude our 20th year in this cat. And there's so much to be excited about and there's so much new work happening on Dove. One of my favorites. Two of my favorites actually, now that I think about it, are here in the us. I don't know if you've seen Dove's whole body launch. One of my favorite pieces of content is Let yout Body that used real Dove users who had needs for a whole body deodorant, who used whole body and expressed with a great rap artist, a new song and Let yout Body. And it became a viral sensation. It's really one of my favorites. You see me moving my body. Let your body, body. I love it. It says my back, my hips is. Oh, maybe a little crassed. Old song that they revamped, which is loving your body. So Dove gets celebrated. And then there's another great example by Dove. You can see how passionate I am about this. I can't stop talking about it. Have you seen the Crumble collection from Dove?

[Jenny Rooney]

That I have not.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

You have to look for it.

[Jenny Rooney]

Look up. Yes.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

It's like the line that the crumbles is a crumble. The viral cookie sensation.

[Jenny Rooney]

Absolutely right.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

So we did a collab with them, the Crumble Twins. Lookie, Dove and Crumble Cookie, the latest sensation. I mean, it's really cool. Look up the Dove Crumble twins.

[Jenny Rooney]

Okay.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

It's really exciting. And we did a partnership with Walmart and those delicious drops of cookies and their bestsellers. We created Dove body washes and deodorant flavors.

[Jenny Rooney]

Oh my gosh, my 16 year old daughter's gonna be all over it.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

So it sold out actually at Walmart. It was just that successful. It was so successful that for the first time in a Walmart's earnings call, they called out a personal care brand, Dove and Crumble this collection because it was a significant driver of their growth. It really was a viral sensation starting from building that brand and culture. So Dove, it can like Dove just keeps growing and evolving. As you think about 20 years of real beauty meeting the needs of culture. From my back, my hips and Dove whole body deodorant to this crumble sensation that's gone viral and it shows in so many ways the new model. We did some really breakthrough things from culture to create the success. So I'm excited about that at Cannes. The next chapter of Dove.

[Jenny Rooney]

Well, we're looking forward to that. I was just going to say, I mean talk about a long running narrative. That Dove story just continues. But the way that you guys have continued to evolve it and continually make it relevant with every era, it's just extraordinary.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

That's the goal and it has to keep coming because culture is moving at the speed of life. So for our brands to be relevant and grow, they must be right there at the speed of life and even ahead shaping culture. So I'm proud that Dev's doing this, but you have to keep raising the bar and we're working to get there at scale across all of our brands and that's what I'm leading for in my current role. But it's a pleasure Talking to you.

[Jenny Rooney]

A.C. thank you so much. Such a pleasure talking to you as well. Such a great place to leave it. So inspirational. So exciting. We'll look forward to seeing what you have to reveal. It can. I'll talk to you again soon and thanks so much for joining me.

[A.C. Eggleston Bracey]

My pleasure. Thank you for listening to Marketing Vanguard, part of the Adweek Podcast Network and Acast Creator Network. You can listen and subscribe to all of Adweek's podcast by visiting adweek.com podcasts. Stay updated on all things Adweek Podcast network by following us on Twitter at Adweek Podcasts. And if you have a question or suggestion for the show, send us an.

[Jenny Rooney]

[e-mail] thanks for listening.

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