Unilever Lao: Curating the Right Influencers for Seven Brands

Influencers are one of Unilever's main routes to consumers in Laos, but the local creator market is small and loosely regulated. The same KOLs often endorse multiple, sometimes conflicting brands and products that do not fit their identity, which dilutes credibility and exposes brands to reputational risk.

Unilever Lao asked Ruder Finn Era to improve the communications strategy and KOL outreach programme across seven brands, so that influencer spend delivered relevant reach without putting the portfolio at risk.

The team treated influencer selection as a reputation decision, not just a media buy. Ruder Finn Era proposed a carefully curated roster built on relevance to each brand, genuinely active followers, engagement quality and real influence, rather than headline follower counts.

During identification the team screened candidates for red flags such as conflicting endorsements and inauthentic audiences, filtering out those that did not meet the bar. Once the campaign was live, active moderation and monitoring allowed potential negative associations or mentions linked to Unilever brands to be caught and managed early.

The approach gave Unilever Lao a tighter, more defensible influencer programme that protected brand identity while still reaching the audiences that matter.