In 2025, Unilever turned heads in the world of digital PR by fusing artificial intelligence with human influence to breathe new life into Dove. What began as a soap promotion transformed into a data-fueled cultural narrative, generating more than 3.5 billion social impressions, reaching half of its purchases from new customers, and delivering unmatched scale and efficiency.
This campaign serves as a case study in how brands can harness digital PR not just to broadcast messages, but to evolve into ecosystems driven by creativity, insights, and strategic reach. As the digital PR landscape fractures across platforms, AI, influencers, and shareable content become its lifeblood—a trinity Unilever masterfully deployed.
Here’s how they did it—and why every modern PR team should take note.
From Soap to Story: The Beginning of a Digital PR Movement
Historically, Dove’s brand identity centered on real beauty and self-esteem. But by 2025, basic product messaging risked getting lost in a cacophony of digital noise. Unilever needed a narrative twist—something viral, visual, and platform-native.
Enter AI-generated influencer content, powered by Nvidia’s Omniverse and Unilever’s Gen AI Content Studios wsj.com. Suddenly, Dove’s products could appear in thousands of unique visuals each week—personalized for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and beyond. Dave’s “soap” turned into sight, sound, and conversation.
These weren’t static ads: they were shareable moments, each optimized for platform and audience. They enabled influencers to craft unique narratives around Dove’s scent collaboration with Crumbl cookies—a diversion from expected beauty content, yet immediately resonant and refreshingly human.
Scale Without Dilution: AI + Human Influencers
One key PR challenge is scale without losing authenticity. Mass content often feels stale, while bespoke content is labor-intensive and limited. Unilever’s answer was a hybrid approach:
- Digital twins of Dove products sped up visual asset creation.
- AI-generated content provided fresh, platform-specific formats.
- Human influencers applied their own voices and angles—keeping the content real and relatable.
This combo multiplied content output—from mere single-digit asset batches to thousands per week—while preserving brand personality wsj.com. It’s the gold standard for digital PR: deliver mass, but feel personal.
Earned Impressions Turned Conversion
In PR, reach is one thing—but conversion is another. For Dove:
- 3.5 billion impressions from the campaign.
- 52% of product purchases from new customers the-sun.com+11empathyfirstmedia.com+11everything-pr.com+11everything-pr.com+1fintechasia.net+1wsj.com.
That’s earned PR with ROI baked in. Each AI‑powered video or image not only amplified Dove’s message—it drove new business. That seamless bridge from awareness to acquisition is rare. But by merging AI scale with influencer credibility, Dove turned ephemeral visibility into measurable results.
Why It Worked: The Four Pillars of Digital PR Excellence
Let’s break down the strategy across four critical components:
Strategic AI Integration
- Speed and volume: Thousands of visuals weekly.
- Platform-tailored formats: Stories for TikTok; compilations for YouTube.
AI is no longer speculation—it’s a production engine. Digital PR at scale needs machines to match speed with relevance. Dove achieved both.
Influencer-Led Creativity
- Real voices: Influencers injected authenticity.
- Content repurpose: Influencer visuals were then reworked into free-form platform formats businessinsider.com+9everything-pr.com+9businessinsider.com+9wsj.com+1everything-pr.com+1.
Digital PR can’t feel manufactured. The human element anchored the campaign in cultural truth—even as AI fueled it.
Data-Driven Messaging
- Scent trend + snack culture: Dove + Crumbl = emotional intrigue.
- New audience capture: Over 50% of buyers were first-timers.
Effective PR tells stories that matter—not fluff. Dove’s scent campaign aligned with curiosity, sensory culture, and experimentation. Data validated the instinct to pivot.
Performance Accountability
- Impressions = success.
- New buyers = ROI.
This isn’t brand fluff—it’s business outcome. By integrating KPIs into campaign planning, Dove ensured digital PR contributed to growth—not just awareness.
Lessons for PR Teams in 2025
Unilever’s campaign teaches essential lessons for ambitious PR professionals:
1. Adopt AI—but Don’t Abandon Authenticity
Unilever’s digital twins and AI imagery accelerated production—but real people remained in the loop. When planning AI-driven assets, remember: authenticity is still human.
2. Design for Repurposing
Every asset had siblings: influencer videos, teasers, vertical ads, memes. Don’t produce one and stop. Digital PR thrives when content is modular and multiplatform by design.
3. Embrace Data from Day One
The campaign started with a trend insight—cookie scents. Metrics like new buyers and impressions guided pivots. Don’t innovate without a pulse on performance.
4. Measure Beyond Media Reach
Traditional PR IS outdated. Today, impressions, sentiment, conversions, and platform engagement matter. Tie PR to growth metrics—not just clippings.
5. Don’t Fear Unconventional Pairings
Beauty plus cookie scent? It’s weird—and that’s the point. Digital PR needs cultural hooks. Choose surprises that resonate culturally, not just commercially.
The Bigger Picture: Evolving Digital PR Trends
Unilever’s Dove campaign sits at the nexus of broader digital PR shifts:
Generative AI as Collaborator
Platforms like Nvidia Omniverse and Gen AI Studios are becoming essential tools, not sci-fi demos. Brands need to integrate AI into workflows—leveraging it for ideation, creation, and iteration at scale.
Influencers as Micro‑publishers
Influencers are now co-creators—and publishers. PR needs to respect their editorial voice, allowing brands to be part of the narrative—not control it.
Modular Content Architecture
Platforms reward native formats. PR teams must craft content that can exist as Stories, posts, threads, videos, and even interactive formats—with each iteration feeling bespoke.
Outcome-Centric PR
Brands won’t fund PR campaigns that don’t drive measurable KPIs. Campaigns must connect to business outcomes early in the planning phase.
Cultural Relevance Over Brand Safe
Cookie-scented soap? That’s a risk. Dove leaned into that cognitive dissonance because culture rewards novelty. PR strategies must seek cultural friction, not avoid it.
What Comes Next for Dove—and Digital PR at Large
As AI matures, we’ll see deeper personalization—custom content based on audience segments, perhaps even AI-generated influencer personas. But the human element remains vital. Audiences crave relatability—pure AI won’t suffice.
Future campaigns will integrate deeper interactivity: AI-enabled quizzes, AR product previews, live co-creation with influencers. PR will evolve from storytelling to story-facilitation—brands enabling communities to co-author the narrative.
Unilever demonstrates this today in puppy-soft soap—but tomorrow, the medium will evolve. Digital PR teams must evolve too—embracing emerging tools, from AI-native video to XR brand experiences.
Digital PR is no longer a series of press releases with fancy visuals. It’s a discipline of platform-native storytelling, AI-driven asset production, and purposeful creativity—all tied to measurable business outcomes.
Unilever’s Dove campaign shows the formula works:
- AI fuels scale.
- Influencers provide authenticity.
- Cultural friction creates buzz.
- Metrics justify investment.
That’s the blueprint for digital PR done right in 2025.
For the next generation of PR professionals, the question isn’t if AI will disrupt the field—it’s how you’ll adapt with intention. Will your campaigns be passive promotions? Or will they interweave with culture, drive conversation, and generate real-world impact?
Unilever chose the latter—and Dove didn’t just sell soap. It ignited a movement. That’s digital PR’s new frontier.
