‘Desire at Scale’ with Unilever’s CMO Leandro Barreto

Chances are, one of the 400 household brands today’s guest oversees is sitting somewhere in your home right now. Maybe it’s Dove in the shower, Vaseline in the drawer, or Hellmann’s mayo in the fridge. Leandro Barreto is the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever, a nearly 100-year-old company behind brands used by billions of people around the world. 

From the award-winning “Vaseline Verified” campaign to creator-led marketing strategies and partnerships with Arsenal Football Club, this episode of Frontier CMO unpacks what it’s like to be a CMO leading through an AI transformation aimed at building “desire at scale.” 

Want to know what the future of marketing actually looks like inside one of the biggest consumer brands in the world? This one’s for you.

00:00 Can AI Create Human Insight?

01:01 Meet Unilever’s Global CMO

03:00 The Power of Purpose-Led Brands

05:00 Why Creativity Is Still Human

07:00 The Vaseline Love Story

09:00 Marketing’s Evolution at Unilever

11:00 Dove and Cultural Relevance

13:00 How Unilever Tracks Culture

15:45 The Vaseline Verified Phenomenon

19:30 Social Commerce & New Growth

20:00 The Biggest Brand Mistake

22:00 AI and the Future of Marketing

26:00 Big Ideas + Content at Scale

27:45 Leading AI Transformation

29:00 Signal vs. Noise

31:30 Three Marketing Lessons to Remember