The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World

Q & A

SHE’S THE QUEEN

of All

Media—and she’s seriously

into digital.

Laura Klauberg, Uni-

lever’s powerful senior vice

president of global media,

has been a major driver in

many of the company’s

most successful digital ini-

tiatives, from “In the Motherhood” for Suave, to “The AXE Effect”

for AXE deodorant, to the Cannes Lions Grand Prix–winning

“Campaign for Real Beauty” for Dove.

The Klauberg

Manifesto

Laura Klauberg, senior vice presi-

dent of global media at Unilever

Klauberg is the first woman, and first American, to head media for

Unilever’s global marketing operations, where she personally controls

the world’s second largest media budget—a full $4.7 billion a year.

Which means her opinion matters—a lot.

It was Klauberg, after all, who recently sparked heartburn

throughout the U.S. television industry when she appeared to ques-

tion the wisdom of allocating TV ad budgets months in advance, dur-

ing the so-called “upfront” season, when media buyers make

commitments to secure advertising time in the following fall’s TV

schedule—arguing that a rapidly changing media market demands

more nimble maneuvering.

In Klauberg’s view, d igital media is fundamentally transforming

the way both brands and consumers use media. Simply “going digi-

tal” means very little. To truly capitalize on the power of on-demand

experience requires what she calls a “big brand idea” driven by con-

sumer insight.

Rick Mathieson: Unilever is one of the world’s largest and most

important advertisers—especially in television. How is that starting to

change?

Laura Klauberg: Historically if you looked at the way we spent

our communication dollars, even as recently as five years ago, you

would see a pretty traditional-looking mix, which was largely televi-

sion driven. And we have also always been a pretty significant spender

in print, and in magazines specifically. Those two mediums used to

constitute 90 percent of our overall communication mix.

But if you look at it today, it’s significantly changed. TV still

dominates our spend, but we’ve dramatically diversified our com-

munication mix, where print still is important, television’s still

important, but the whole digital space is growing significantly and

more than doubles every year in terms of the total dollars that we’re

investing.

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THE ON-DEMAND BRAND

RM: What have you learned so far as you have started to invest

more heavily in digital?

LK: The first lesson—and this lesson I think pertains to any

medium—is to stress the brand idea. If you have a big brand idea,

whether you’re talking about television, or you’re talking about

print, or you’re talking about digital, it makes a significant differ-

ence. Particularly in the digital space because it provides an oppor-

tunity to engage consumers in unprecedented ways—in ways that

just running a thirty-second television ad or a static print ad didn’t in

the past.

But if it doesn’t start at the core with a really engaging brand idea,

no one’s going to bother to interact with or engage with you.

RM: Obviously some of the most innovative work Unilever’s done

has been for the Dove brand, with the “Campaign for Real Beauty.”

Why, even after all these years, has this multiplatform initiative been

so powerful in the marketplace?

LK: It goes back to the essence of what Dove is about; it’s about

redefining beauty stereotypes.

What we’ve learned on a global basis is that women feel passionate

about that subject. And any time you find a group of consumers that

feels passionate about something, they want to speak out on it.

I think that whole brand platform has really lent itself to the digi-

tal space because we’ve afforded women an opportunity—whether it’s

posting a message on a message board or it’s [asking consumers to cre-

ate] a Dove commercial, as in the case of Dove Cream Oil, where we

got far more entries than we had ever anticipated.

When women feel strongly about something, and you give them a

platform to speak out, or to create something, or to engage with one

another, they’ll jump on it. That’s why they’ll send a video to all their

friends. They’ll post the Evolution video on their Facebook page or

their MySpace profile and write on the Dove message board on our

LAURA KLAUBERG

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