Unilever shakes up marketing approach with Google partnership
A subsidiary of Unilever, Hindustan Unilever, is teaming up with content creators like Facebook and Google in an effort to move away from traditional product placement. The company spoke to digital giants like Google to discuss how it could "weave its brands into their content, messages and shows, instead of just product placement and brand plugs" as it believes consumers are no longer passive viewers and should be active participants in the brand's story telling journey. 
As the online platform continues to evolve for many industries, beauty companies must adapt to retain their position as the main provider of their sector.

According to market researcher Diagonal Reports; “The traditional beauty industry must compete to protect its market share. How it handles these technology developments will determine whether it will retain its position as the premier provider of beauty, or it relinquishes the crown to others."​

Bearing this in mind, Hindustan Unilever sat down with digital giants like Google as well as other sources of the media to discuss how it could "weave its brands into their content, messages and shows, instead of just product placement and brand plugs", ​according to The Economic Times.

Prasanth Kumar, chief executive of Unilever's media agency, Mindshare added that the consumer is no longer a passive viewer, but an active participant in the brand's story-telling journey.

"The Brand ideas and content that resonate with the audience are further seeded by them into their own circle of influence that has a far more powerful effect,​" he says.

Online shopping is taking over​

More and more beauty buyers are opting to shop online because it is rich in high value information, that is, the solutions that are relevant to their hair and skin care needs and regimes.

The online platform is used to access the lived beauty experiences of real women and girls, or people 'just like me', and this experience is becoming superior to low value beauty information, such as advertisements and paid promotions.

“Technology developments are shaping both new beauty solutions and new relationships between consumers and beauty. The ‘cosmetic’ is no longer THE reference point for beauty,”​ says Diagonal Reports.

What that means now is that cosmetics brands are thinking outside the box when it comes to new solutions, with scientific skin care as a good example of this.