Unilever’s showing at the 2026 Cannes Lions festival underlines the importance of marketing execution to its wider business strategy. The company was named the event’s most-awarded advertiser after its brands received 35 Lions and secured 87 shortlist places.
Several campaigns produced clear evidence of stronger sales, higher engagement or increased product relevance. Unilever depends on established brands maintaining consumer attention across competitive categories such as personal care, home care and food.
Vaseline was the largest contributor, winning 20 Lions across five campaigns. Its Vaseline Originals range turned product ideas already being shared by creators into commercially available products. TikTok-driven launch sales for the co-created products were 466% higher than sales of classic Vaseline jelly, with one jar sold every two seconds during the launch.
Dove won six Lions for its r/eal Reviews campaign, which invited consumers to review its Intensive Repair 10-in-1 Serum Hair Mask. The brand committed to publishing the first 50 permitted reviews, whether positive or negative. Sales more than doubled compared with the previous year, and the product became the bestselling hair mask in the United States during the campaign. It also generated more than one billion earned impressions.
Cif received four Lions for Clean My Name, a campaign built around the Brazilian expression used to describe being in debt. The brand worked with credit renegotiation platform Serasa to give people the chance to receive support with their debts. The campaign resulted in millions in renegotiated debt and increased brand sales.
Dirt Is Good won three Lions across two campaigns. The OMO Varzenal Cup brought Brazilian grassroots football culture to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. The campaign generated more than 110 million views and 180,000 hours of watch time, becoming the brand’s most successful content. A separate campaign with Arsenal Women’s Football Club used childhood photographs of players to show how outdoor play can support confidence and independence. It reached more than 7.3 million people and generated over 86,000 engagements.
Knorr’s ServingSingles campaign encouraged people to introduce single friends through cooking. It generated 3.5 billion earned impressions and 3.3 million engagements across 29 markets. Hellmann’s also won recognition for a campaign that repositioned mayonnaise as the main feature of a dish rather than a supporting ingredient.
Unilever is a 2.7% holding in the Global Opportunities Trust portfolio at 30 June 2026. It was one of the trust’s larger listed equity positions and one of several consumer staples holdings.
Global Opportunities Trust plc (LON:GOT) invests globally in undervalued asset classes without reference to the composition of any stock market index.
