Unilever offers women cash for engagement

by Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh, revolutionmagazine.com 06-May-09, 10:45

LONDON - Unilever is piloting an online collaborative community to encourage women to contribute ideas for new products.

Created by Face, Mindbubble.co.uk targets women aged 25-50, and gives them cash rewards for their contribution. The site enables users will be asked to give their opinions on products and marketing campaigns through focus groups and polls.

Unilever hopes the project will result in greater engagement with its range of brands, which include Surf, Dove and Persil. The FMCG giant will involve consumers in forums, blogs, diaries and polls as part of the project, which is consistent with a policy of using digital engagement to increase brand affinity.

Unilever has increased its digital spend in the US from two to three per cent of its marketing budget to around 15 per cent and intends to make similar changes in the UK.

Babs Rangaiah, Unilever's global communications planning director said the company plans to shift marketing focus away from interruption towards engagement.

"We are all about the masses and scale, and interruption is becoming a much tougher proposition. So we have this term: 'penetrate the culture'. It's about getting into what people are interested in, what they are engaged in," he said.