Bath & Body Works borrows Unilever playbook with tenfold creator push

Bath & Body Works plans to increase its use of content creators roughly tenfold as part of a broader effort to modernise its marketing and reposition it as a global beauty brand.

Chief executive Daniel Heaf told investors the company will dramatically expand creator-led content as it looks to build a stronger presence across social media platforms.

“We are going to significantly expand the use of content creators,” Heaf said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “You’ll see roughly a tenfold increase in how we leverage content creation so we can show up in social media in a way that is modern and relevant.”

The shift forms part of the retailer’s newly announced “consumer-first formula”, a multi-year strategy aimed at returning the company to sustainable growth.

Bath & Body Works, best known for its scented candles, reported fourth-quarter sales of $2.7bn, down 2.3% year-on-year. Heaf said the performance was “better” than the company had anticipated thanks to stronger demand over the holiday period, but still “well below the standard” it expects for itself.

He pegged the shortfall on the fact that the company had fallen behind competitors on product innovation and brand expression, relying too heavily on promotional activity to drive sales.

“Our market execution did not keep pace with the competition or with the consumer,” he said.

The company now plans to rebuild momentum through stronger product development, updated branding and a wider distribution strategy designed to meet customers wherever they choose to shop.

Alongside the social media push, a key milestone in that effort was Bath & Body Works’ launch on Amazon in February, which Heaf said would give the brand access to the platform’s large beauty customer base and help attract new shoppers.

“We know consumers often go to Amazon to purchase their beauty products,” he said.

Bath & Body Works’ strategy reflects a wider shift across the consumer goods industry, where major brands are increasingly treating creators as a core marketing channel rather than a supplementary one.

Unilever has been among the most visible adopters of that approach. The company has accelerated its move towards “social-first demand generation”, committing to shift half of its global media spending into social platforms while working with nearly 300,000 creators worldwide.

Several of Unilever’s fastest-growing brands – including Dove, Vaseline and Liquid I.V. – have benefited from strong traction on creator-led social campaigns.

For Bath & Body Works, the tenfold creator push is ultimately a bet that better content can do what promotions could not – win back shoppers and make the brand feel relevant again.

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