From URL to IRL: Unilever’s Dennis Perez on Making Marketing Human Again
At Digicon 2025, Perez unpacked the future of social-first marketing, where technology amplifies empathy, algorithms serve culture, and brands create with people, not just for them.
Organized by the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines , Digicon 2025 gathered marketing leaders and business innovators to decode the future of business in an era increasingly shaped by technology and culture. Among the standout voices was Dennis Perez, Head of Marketing, Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever.
Perez’s keynote presentation, “It’s Not You, It’s I: When Social First Thinking Reinvents Marketing,” offered compelling lessons for brands navigating an algorithm-driven, AI-powered, and culture-centric world.
Talking to the Algorithm
“It’s not a battle for reach anymore. It’s now a battle of algorithms on who will make us stay the longest and most engaged,” Perez said.
Perez highlighted one of the biggest shifts in marketing today: the rise of the algorithm as the new gatekeeper of attention.
“Are we still creating content that we want people to see,” he asked, “instead of what people truly want to see and hear from us?”
With platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Meta Reels all competing to keep audiences hooked, Perez explained that marketers are no longer just speaking to people—they’re speaking to algorithms. To be seen, brands must feed these algorithms with the volume, variety, and velocity of content they crave.
AI as Co-Creator, Not Competitor
The real power of artificial intelligence, according to Perez, isn’t just its speed or efficiency.
“It’s its growing ability to operate autonomously, to decide, adapt, and create on its own,” Perez said. “With technology becoming agentic, AI’s reinteraction to marketing is not just on the output it creates, but on the energy it releases for us marketers to focus on crafting experiences both online and offline.”
At Unilever, Perez’s team refers to these experiences as “From URL ( online) to IRL (offline).”
AI isn’t treated as a replacement for creativity, but as an agentic collaborator: a partner capable of generating, adapting, and optimizing content autonomously. The company’s use of digital twins and AI-powered content engines has allowed teams to create more personalized experiences at scale, all while maintaining the brand’s emotional integrity.
Yet Perez was quick to remind the audience that technology can never replace human sentiment. AI can multiply content, but only humans can create meaning.
“We must maintain the balance between digital, or URL, and real-world, or IRL experiences,” Perez said. “Because only then can we complete the full picture of modern social first marketing. And thanks to AI, the reinvention of workflows allows us marketers to have more time to think about those human experiences than getting hung up with merely creating advertising.”
Gen-I Culture: Belonging Over Demographics
“People today no longer define themselves by the generation they belong to,” said Perez.
He explains, “Whether you’re Gen-X, Gen-Z, or Gen-Alpha, we now share experiences shaped not by our age, but by interest, identity, and belonging. In short, we are shaped by the communities we belong to, not by the generation we were born into.”
For Unilever, that understanding has become the foundation of campaigns built around communities instead of generational cohorts. The VitaKeratin x Fyang campaign stands as an example. By tapping into the viral question “Nasan ba si Fyang?”, the brand didn’t just leverage an influencer—it participated in a cultural moment that fans and audiences were already invested in: the Pinoy Big Brother phenomenon.
“To me, that’s not just fandom at work,” Perez added. “That’s the algorithm powered by culture at work.”
Culture, according to Perez, is the new marketing currency.
Platform, Experience, Culture-First
Perez outlined Unilever’s three guiding principles for marketing in the age of algorithms and AI.
- Platform-First
To be platform-first, marketers must understand how each platform works and design content that feeds its algorithm.
- Experience-First
This involves using technology to create infinite experiences that remain anchored in human emotion.
- Culture-First
Being culture-first entails allowing brands to live within communities and move with culture,rather than chasing trends.
These three pillars, Perez explained, form the core of social-first marketing: a model built not on virality or ad spend, but on authenticity and cultural fluency.
Social-first marketing isn’t just about being on social media; it’s about being embedded in the conversations, rhythms, and rituals that define how people connect online and offline.
Hyper-Personalization by Persona, Not Person
Perez also challenged the industry’s idea of personalization.
“Hyper-personalization isn’t about targeting per person or individual,” he said. “It’s about targeting per persona.”
In today’s context, a single person can be a traveler, a gamer, a foodie, and a film enthusiast. Marketing must evolve to reflect that fluidity. The goal, Perez said, is to shift from the marketing of “you” to the marketing of “I.” This involves creating narratives with the use of evolving audience sentiment and preferences as a guiding tool, rather than creating campaigns based on a preconceived notion of the target market.
When Culture Meets Creativity
Perez’s principles have come to life in some of Unilever’s most compelling campaigns.
Dove x Reddit
The Dove X Reddit campaign tapped into real online conversations about hair care myths, transforming community posts into campaign content. This not only drove engagement but also strengthened authenticity, standing as proof that the best insights often come from listening, not broadcasting.
Pond’s Dream Summer
The Pond’s Dream Summer campaign blended AI-powered personalization with real-world activations, creating over 5,000 unique experiences. It turned a digital trend into tangible, shareable memories, demonstrating how AI and human sentiment can co-create something that drives impact.
Cream Silk’s “Queens”
Cream Silk’s “Queens” campaign redefined what beauty and power look like for modern Filipinas. By celebrating queens from different spheres—drag, sports, entertainment, and fashion—the brand reignited cultural relevance and emotional resonance with the Gen Z audience.
These campaigns represent a new kind of marketing that is built with culture, powered by AI, and scaled by algorithms.
Rearchitecting the Organization
To make social-first marketing sustainable, Unilever reimagined its internal structure. Traditional brand manager roles have evolved into Experience Leads, Community Leads, and Influencer Leads, enforcing a system that prioritizes capability over hierarchy.
Perez calls this process “architecting”—the deliberate act of demolishing and rebuilding an organization to make it fit for the future.
Measuring What Matters
Unilever’s approach to measurement has also evolved. Instead of focusing solely on impressions or reach, the company now looks at three key metrics: buzz, engagement, and sentiment.
Fluctuations in sentiment—both positive and negative—are actually signs of success. “Sentiment shifts are part of the game. It is proof that our brands are sparking real conversations, both positive and negative. And that’s exactly where relevance lives,” said Perez.
Numbers don’t lie. Unilever’s social-first shift has coincided with market share turnarounds across several categories, validating that marketing anchored in community and culture drives growth.
Making Marketing Human Again
In closing, Perez urged marketers to take the first step and move from a marketing of ‘you’ to a marketing of ‘I.’
“When we stop speaking to people and start creating with them,” he said, “we don’t just make marketing better—we make it human.”
In an age ruled by algorithms and artificial intelligence, the brands that thrive will be those that understand people best—not as data points or demographics, but as living, evolving communities. Because in the end, as Dennis Perez made clear at Digicon 2025, the future of marketing isn’t just social-first. It’s human-first.
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