Unilever launches AI-driven design unit to speed up content creation

This comes as Unilever increasingly focuses more of its marketing efforts and budgets on influencers and social media strategies. These require faster turnaround times than more traditional mediums to capitalise on micro-trends and trending topics that emerge rapidly, but fade away equally quickly. 

Sketch Pro is currently live in London, São Paulo in Brazil, Mumbai in India and Jakarta in Indonesia. Unilever plans to have expanded the offering to 21 of its centres by 2026. Next in line are Durban in South Africa, Shanghai in China and Istanbul in Turkey. 

The Sketch Pro studios use a flexible, diverse toolkit of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI products – including Adobe Firefly and Google Veo3 – rather than relying on a single platform.  

Continuously pushing creative boundaries 

“This AI-native approach allows the team to stay ahead of emerging tools and trends, continuously pushing creative boundaries,” Unilever says in a press release. 

“Our partnership with IPG supercharges our ability to ideate, iterate and deliver high-quality design assets with speed and cultural relevance, reflecting how consumers now engage with the home-care category. 

The press statement adds that the artificial intelligence technology used by the Sketch Pro studios can turn a concept into material that is ready for consumer testing within two hours. 

Sketch Pro was created in partnership with IPG Studios, Interpublic Group’s creative production agency, and is intended to serve popular Unilver brands such as Omo, Comfort, Persil and Domestos. 

Comments the marketing industry news website Marketing Dive: “Sketch Pro offers another indication that legacy [consumer packaged goods companies] are undergoing a shift in their marketing strategy as social media becomes a more important channel and artificial intelligence enables the level of speed needed to keep pace with fast-scrolling content feeds.”