Lazy Marketing Is Dead. But Is Your Brand Strategy Keeping Up?

Unilever’s new CEO Fernando Fernandez recently made headlines by declaring that “lazy marketing” is dead. His vision: ditch the few polished campaign moments a year and become, in his words, “the world’s biggest creator-led business.” More influencers. More content. Always on.

It’s a grand statement. And on the surface, it sounds like bold, progressive leadership.

But let’s slow down for a moment.

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What Unilever’s Creator-Led Strategy Gets Right

Fernandez isn’t wrong that the marketing landscape has shifted. He’s not wrong that brands can no longer afford to show up twice a year with a glossy TVC and expect it to carry the year. Consumer attention is fragmented, platforms are personal, and relevance now requires consistency.

Unilever makes sense as a case study for this kind of pivot. Most of its portfolio are mass audience FMCG products — the kind that traditionally built salience through big, broad campaigns. The modern equivalent — personalised, creator-led content that reaches individuals where they are — is entirely relevant to that same audience. For Unilever specifically, the shift makes strategic sense.

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Why Creator-Led Marketing Does Not Work for Every Brand

But Unilever is not every brand. And Fernando Fernandez is not every CMO.

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Does Influencer Marketing Work for Small Businesses?

So here’s a question I'd ask — Which influencer or creator is going to invest their time, energy, and credibility into a brand that has little to no traction yet? Very few. Creator-led marketing works best when there’s already something worth amplifying. When the brand has weight behind it.

Channel strategy should follow brand strategy. Not headlines.

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How to Choose the Right Marketing Channel for Your Brand

The real framework isn’t “big campaigns vs. creator content.” It’s far more nuanced. It comes down to business model, brand maturity, and funnel stage. A brand in the awareness phase has different needs from one driving consideration or conversion. Channel mix should be determined by where you are in the cycle — not by what the most prominent CEO in your industry said at a conference.

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“Channel strategy should follow brand strategy. Not headlines.”

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The Problem With Following Marketing Trends Without a Brand Foundation

And then — the detail that I can’t let go unnoticed.

While declaring mass advertising dead, Unilever simultaneously announced a major World Cup sponsorship. One of the biggest mass-reach media buys on the planet. The same campaign approach Fernandez had just described as “lazy.”

Actions speak louder than declarations.

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Why CEO Marketing Declarations Should Not Drive Your Brand Strategy

So to every brand manager out there who read that headline and felt the pressure to overhaul their entire channel strategy overnight — pause.

CEO soundbites are not marketing doctrine. Context matters enormously. What works for a 400-brand FMCG conglomerate with the resources to fund an always-on content engine at scale is not automatically the right prescription for your brand, your audience, or your stage of growth.

Know your brand. Know your funnel. Know your audience.

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Lazy Branding vs Lazy Marketing — Which Is the Real Problem?

There’s an irony at the heart of all of this. Fernandez is right that lazy marketing is a problem. But lazy marketing is often a symptom, not the disease. When brands don’t know who they are, they default to whatever approach is trending. They copy the market leader. They chase the channel. They produce more content without asking whether it’s saying anything worth hearing.

Lazy marketing is dead. Lazy branding is alive and thriving. And that’s the problem worth solving first.

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This article was originally written and published on LinkedIn.