Unilever gets rapid social roll out

Works with systems integrator to build digital social platform for global consumer marketing communications in three months

Unilever has this month revealed work with a specialist division of systems integrator (SI) Accentureto build and implement a new digital social platform in just 12 weeks.

The new platform has been designed to help the consumer connect its marketers, brand managers and partners in 190 countries. 

The implementation, which is built on the Salesforce.comcustomer relationship management (CRM) platform and uses its enterprise social networking technology Salesforce Chatter, is enabling Unilever marketers to share knowledge, best practices and creative assets across the network.

Boosting global collaboration

“The new applications boost collaboration among our marketers globally, helping them to easily find people, information and conversations that they should be a part of,” said Marc Mathieu, senior vice president of marketing for Unilever.

“The platform provides our team with the tools they need to develop and build our brands in local markets, which is critical to driving our ‘Crafting Brands for Life’ strategy. It also frees up time for our team to create more magic – that is, to engage with consumers and create more effective marketing, which will be key to delivering our ambition to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact.”

Enhancing marketing agility

The new Unilever digital social platform provides its marketers with access to the latest Unilever knowledge, people and tools, and allowing them to participate in discussions and share best practice examples across the business, while enabling each Unilever brand team to create a central hub, where marketers and partners can join in conversations and access relevant content and assets.

The platform also provides a forum to support collaboration between central and local teams and between Unilever marketers and their external marketing agencies.

Marketing technology transformation

Mark McClennon, Unilever consumer chief information officer, commented: “These tools really help us harness the power of the brands, the power of the people in Unilever and our agency partners –that combination is very powerful for us.

“We’ve gone from a blank piece of paper all the way through to rolling out the first release of the platform in about three months using Salesforce technology. This is nothing short of a marketing and technology transformation for Unilever.”

Accenture Interactive reported that it was engaged to develop rich, innovative applications to drive business value while at the same time, keeping them simple enough so users would fine them familiar to achieve rapid adoption.  

The SI's division drew upon the expertise of over 2,100 of its Salesforce skilled personnel, as well as its cloud centres of excellence, Accenture software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery toolkit and Accenture cloud application factory, to deliver Unilever’s new digital platform. And the service is part of Accenture’s Commercial Services for Consumer Goods.