Billions Shift to Social-First Marketing: The New Strategy
▼ Summary
– Unilever’s CEO announced a major shift by reallocating half of the media budget to social, reflecting a broader trend where 80% of marketers are moving funds from traditional channels to social media.
– Social media has become central to consumer behavior, with people using it to discover brands, get recommendations, and access support, while traditional channels like search, email, and TV are declining in effectiveness.
– Social-first marketing places social media at the core of strategy, influencing creative direction, product development, and real-time feedback, as seen in successful examples from brands like Wild, Duolingo, and Lowe’s.
– Budgets are shifting significantly toward social media, with 87% of marketing leaders planning to increase paid social spend and over 80% boosting influencer marketing and organic social investments to drive growth.
– Demonstrating ROI requires connecting social efforts to revenue through attribution models and improving team efficiency with AI tools, as success depends on measurable impact on growth, cost reduction, and strategic agility.
A seismic transformation is underway in the marketing world as major corporations redirect billions toward social-first strategies. When Unilever’s CEO revealed plans to shift half the company’s media budget into social channels, it wasn’t an isolated move, it was a signal of a broader, irreversible trend. Today’s leading brands aren’t just experimenting with social media; they’re restructuring entire marketing models around it.
Recent industry analysis reveals that 80% of marketers are moving funds away from traditional outlets like TV, search, and email toward social platforms. The reason is clear: consumer behavior has fundamentally changed. People now turn to social networks to discover brands, seek recommendations, and interact directly with companies. In the modern attention economy, social media isn’t just an option, it’s the center of gravity.
This pivot marks the arrival of what many are calling the “social intelligence era,” where real-time insights from social platforms shape everything from creative campaigns to product development. Brands that fail to adapt risk becoming irrelevant.
So what does it mean to be social-first? It means treating social media not as a supplementary channel but as the core of a brand’s strategy. Content is designed specifically for each platform, tailored to niche audiences, and intended to build community. More importantly, social intelligence informs business decisions, making marketing more agile, personalized, and effective.
Consider the case of Wild, a UK-based personal care brand now under Unilever. From its inception, Wild built its business on social influence. More than a third of its team focuses exclusively on influencer partnerships, which they treat as a direct sales channel rather than just a branding exercise. According to former Global Head of Influencer & Partnerships Laura Donadio, their goals are strictly conversion-driven.
Duolingo offers another compelling example. The language app’s famous mascot, Duo the Owl, became a social media sensation. When the brand aired a Big Game commercial featuring the character, it immediately followed up with in-app notifications urging users to complete a lesson. The result was a dramatic spike in reactivations and lesson completions, with fans enthusiastically sharing their progress online. This created a perfect feedback loop between social content, advertising, and user action.
Lowe’s recently launched the Lowe’s Creator Network, an affiliate program designed for DIY content creators. With commissions and personalized storefronts, the initiative already has over 17,000 creators signed up. It’s a clear effort to capture the attention of Millennial and Gen Z shoppers who regularly seek project ideas and product advice from online personalities.
This strategic reallocation reflects a harsh new reality: the old marketing playbook is broken. Investments are finally aligning with where consumers actually spend their time. According to industry research, 87% of marketing leaders plan to increase paid social spending, while more than 80% will boost budgets for influencer collaborations and organic social efforts.
UK retail giant Marks & Spencer offers a telling case study. The company now allocates as much to social media as it does to television advertising, a shift that significantly boosted sales among younger shoppers.
But with greater investment comes greater accountability. Marketing teams face mounting pressure to demonstrate tangible returns from social initiatives. Success depends on linking social activities to revenue while also proving operational efficiency. This requires advanced attribution models and technology that integrate social data across the organization.
Efficiency is equally critical. Teams that define ROI in terms of streamlined operations are better positioned to prove the value of their social efforts. AI-powered tools are increasingly used to identify trends, optimize posting schedules, manage customer interactions, and evaluate potential influencer partnerships.
By automating routine tasks, marketing teams can focus on high-impact work: refining customer experiences, developing data-informed campaigns, and producing quality content. Without the right tools and executive support, even the largest social budgets won’t deliver results.
In the C-suite, vanity metrics like “likes” carry little weight. Real currency lies in growth, efficiency, and resilience. Winning social teams connect every post, comment, and collaboration to concrete business outcomes, whether that’s new revenue or reduced costs.
The move toward social-first marketing is more than a trend, it’s the new standard. As audiences increasingly rely on social platforms to discover, evaluate, and connect with brands, marketing leaders must align budgets, talent, and technology accordingly. Those who succeed won’t just have a social presence, they’ll be built from the ground up for the social age.
(Source: Sprout Social)
