Gaurav Datta is a lifer at Unilever, having spent over 22 years with the global FMCG giant. As global VP personal care, he leads Lifebuoy, Lux, Closeup, and Pepsodent—marquee brands with a global presence and impressive legacies, representing $3 billion in revenue.
However, Datta is leading these brands through an era where legacy and pedigree no longer represent an undisputed advantage. The younger generation is getting everything from life lessons to brand recommendations from a vast galaxy of influencers and becoming fixated on so-called ‘super ingredients’. All of this means business-as-usual approaches for legacy brands that emphasise reliability and trust won over decades are likely to yield diminishing returns, a thesis Unilever is well aware of. New CEO Fernando Fernandez recently spoke of boosting the FMCG giant’s social media investments from 30% to 50% and increasing the number of influencers it works with.
Maintaining relevance while adopting a vastly different marketing playbook is among Datta’s key challenges, particularly since, as he points out, consumers are discovering products on their phones rather than on store shelves. To add to this to-do list: not losing what made these brands great—deep consumer trust, aspiration, and propositions—such as ‘freshness that gets you close’ for Closeup—that have stood the test of time.
Through the course of the interview, Datta describes what it takes to walk this tightrope: finding the relevant signals amid more noise than ever; reducing product development timelines and developing personalised content at scale with generative AI; making the switch from traditional consumer research to social listening; and finally making timeless brands, timely—a catchphrase he picked up at the Cannes Lions festival last year.
1. What is the single biggest challenge and opportunity facing the category and brands that you manage in 2025, and how are you preparing to address both?
At Unilever, I have the privilege of leading four personal care power brands—Lifebuoy, Lux, Pepsodent and Closeup—all of which have an impressive legacy, ranging between 130 to 58 years. One of my biggest challenges is to ensure these brands stay relevant to consumers today and in the future while so much in their lives is changing. Legacy brands come with deep consumer trust, but it needs constant renewal and importantly an updated boost of aspiration to not lose ground to new entrants which focus on growing niche segments and benefits.
At the same time, shopping habits are changing with consumers discovering brands on their phones first, not on store shelves. Therefore, legacy brands that once had the advantage of distribution strength must compete in an ecosystem where digital-native brands are capturing attention. With Asian consumers particularly interested in trying something new, novelty of experience becomes key.
So, we have to be brave as marketers to get consumer’s attention. At Unilever, we focus on making our brands unmissable with bold, culturally attuned storytelling, and by creating novel experiences through constant innovation. This is even more important to get noticed on social platforms where algorithms prioritise relevance of message for the audience.
These changes have made premiumisation a big opportunity within the categories I lead. The global economy is becoming increasingly top-heavy, with affluent consumers driving value growth and younger consumers are increasingly looking for what they call an ‘affordable daily luxury experience’ like adding a bath oil or a scrub to their bathing regime or trying a new teeth-whitening format that they discovered online. It’s a great time to innovate and bring advanced product science and distinctive design to consumers.
2. Beyond specific channels, what marketing capabilities are you prioritising for investment in 2025, and which areas are getting a cut?
In 2025, we’re focusing on leveraging the power of AI through an organisation wide marketing transformation. Generative AI has been a significant asset in reducing the product development timelines and enabling personalised content development at scale.
Another big shift is putting social platforms at the heart of our brand plans. This means ensuring our marketing ideas are sparked by social insights, and our marketing is social by design, intentionally crafted to foster engagement and interaction.
This comes with a shift in media investments of course, but also in new data analytics to optimise both content and media strategy, and in influencer selection and partnership.
The way we engage with consumers is changing rapidly. We are doing a lot less traditional consumer research, which required significant cost and effort. Instead, we use mobile tools which facilitate faster interactions with consumers, use social listening to distil fundamental category and cultural insights, and predict trends and performance using data from smaller sample sizes.
3. How has the nature of purpose driven work changed? What role can influencers and content creators who are becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing mix play in this?
Brand purpose continues to be a very important part of the proposition for some of our brands. For brands like Pepsodent teaching kids good brushing habits, and Lux taking on negative biases that women face in many cultures for expressing their beauty, is a core part of their positioning.
For example, Closeup has been built on the idea “freshness that gets you close” for almost 60 years and it enables the brand to participate in conversations about dating and romance authentically.
Content creators also play an important role to deepen engagement with communities and help people discover and buy products digitally. Our approach to influencer marketing has always been to develop long-term relationships with content creators through consistent engagements, ensuring those we partner with, share the same belief systems and values as our brands and are relevant in the passion spaces of the people we serve.
4. With multiple data points on a portfolio of brands across different geographies in varying stages of development, how do you separate the signal from the noise and focus on what matters the most?
It is true that today we have more data than ever but finding actionable insights is just as challenging. Unilever has moved to a new comprehensive framework called Unmissable Brand Superiority (UBS) that combines over 20 metrics into one competitive score and recommends the top 3 metrics to focus on that particular brand within a market to increase competitiveness. I am finding this tool very useful in driving aligned actions organisation wide.
5. CMOs are under increasing pressure to deliver maximum value for every dollar spent. In today’s volatile market, how can agency-client relationships evolve to deliver maximum measurable value?
The success metrics are very clear to me—revenue growth and market share gain. Those are the measurable objectives that marketing actions including collaboration with creative partners have to drive. There are other secondary drivers which can help achieve these two objectives depending on specific brand situation eg speed of execution or cost of creative development.
My recommendation to all marketing teams and creative partners is to identify and agree on measurable objectives and then track and review them constantly. This also strengthens the marketing leadership’s ability to justify investment decisions.
6. Talk about a campaign outside your brands that truly inspired you, and what lessons could you apply to your own portfolio?
Outside of the amazing work Unilever brands are doing, I have been inspired by Stanley and Crocs—both legacy brands that completely reinvented themselves, gaining massive traction with younger audiences. Their success shows the power of combining smart product design, building cultural relevance, and fuelling a community-driven momentum.
Stanley turned an everyday tumbler into a status symbol, fuelled by organic social media buzz. Crocs transformed from a divisive shoe into a fashion must-have through strategic collaborations. Both tapped into cultural moments and online conversations in ways that felt authentic.
For the brands I lead, the key takeaway is that reinvention isn’t just about new campaigns—it’s about designing products and experiences that naturally integrate into the culture of today.
7. What's the one piece of advice you'd give to young marketing professionals aspiring to become future marketing leaders in APAC?
Be brave to ensure your brands stand out. In a competitive market, it’s crucial to make your voice heard. Doing the expected makes you invisible.
But it’s not just about your product—focus on understanding the culture your consumers live and breathe every day. Brands that connect authentically with cultural moments can create stronger emotional ties and drive better commerce and media results. By bridging the gap between your brand and the lives of your consumers, you can make a larger impact.
8. If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would they be and what marketing wisdom would you hope to glean from them?
David Beckham—I am a big football fan especially of Manchester United and Real Madrid and have been fan of not just Beckham’s free kicks but also of how he has proven himself as an entrepreneur and a family man.
Lee Kuan Yew—As somebody who has adopted Singapore as home for many years now, its perfection as a nation state is astounding. I would love to get an insight into Lee Kuan Yew’s far-sighted vision and execution discipline to create this fabulous culture.
Sam Altman—AI means the future is going to be very different from our imagination. I think Sam has a better idea than most others of how it is going to play out.
9. What keeps you up at night as a CMO?
As a CMO, what keeps me up at night is the challenge of balancing the weight of history with the need for change. Managing brands with nearly 100 years of history requires ensuring they stay relevant today while preparing for the future. I take confidence in these brands having thrived through years of change—that’s why they are here today. They are timeless and my job is to make them timely, a phrase I heard a lot at Cannes last year.
The key is to be thought leaders, moving in sync with culture and commerce, reinventing category norms, and constantly innovating to bring novel experiences to more and more consumers.
