Inside Wild's 'Performance-First' Influencer Bet Under Unilever
TL;DR: A year after Unilever bought British refillable-deodorant brand Wild for £230m, Wild says influencer marketing is now its single biggest growth channel — run on a deliberately 'performance-first' basis focused on true selling power rather than reach or vanity metrics.
What Wild is doing
Wild, the refillable-deodorant brand Unilever acquired for £230m in April 2025, has made influencer marketing its 'biggest growth channel' roughly a year on. The approach is deliberately 'performance-first', focused on what the brand calls true selling power rather than reach or vanity metrics.
That's a notable signal of how a mass-FMCG owner is handling a challenger acquisition: retaining the creator-led playbook that built Wild rather than defaulting to traditional media.
Wild grew on a subscription refill model and creator content, and now frames influencers as a measurable acquisition engine — not just an awareness tactic.
Why 'performance-first' influencer marketing matters
For years, influencer budgets were justified by reach and impressions — the softest metrics in marketing. Wild is explicitly rejecting that, judging creators by their ability to actually sell.
That reframing turns influencer marketing from a brand-awareness line item into a performance channel that competes head-to-head with paid search and social on cost per acquisition.
It also changes who gets hired. A 'true selling power' lens favours creators with genuine purchasing influence over those with the biggest but most passive followings.
Marketing Minute's read
Our take: the most interesting thing here isn't Wild — it's Unilever. A £230m acquirer choosing to keep a challenger's creator-first model, rather than absorb it into legacy media planning, is a quiet admission that the old playbook doesn't reach these buyers.
The 'performance-first' framing is where influencer marketing has to go to survive scrutiny. As budgets tighten, any channel that can't tie spend to sales gets cut, and influencer marketing has long been vulnerable on exactly that point.
The risk to watch: pushing creators purely on selling power can strip out the authenticity that made them effective in the first place. The brands that win will hold both — proof and credibility — at once.
What businesses should do
Judge creators on conversion, not reach. Ask what a partnership sells, not how many people it theoretically reached, and structure deals around measurable outcomes.
If you acquire a challenger brand, resist the urge to 'professionalise' away the very model that made it grow. Wild's value to Unilever is partly its playbook.
Balance performance with authenticity. Over-optimising creators for hard selling can kill the trust that makes them convert in the first place.
Quick FAQ
How much did Unilever pay for Wild?
Unilever acquired the refillable-deodorant brand Wild for £230m in April 2025.
What is Wild's biggest growth channel now?
Influencer marketing, run on a 'performance-first' basis focused on true selling power rather than reach or vanity metrics.
Why is this significant?
It shows a mass-FMCG owner retaining a challenger brand's creator-led model rather than replacing it with traditional media, and pushing influencer marketing toward measurable performance.
The real headline isn't Wild — it's Unilever keeping a challenger's creator-first playbook instead of absorbing it into legacy media. 'Performance-first' is where influencer marketing has to go to survive budget scrutiny. The trick is judging creators on selling power without stripping out the authenticity that makes them sell. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The signal isn't just Wild's growth — it's a £230m FMCG owner betting that a challenger's performance-led creator model reaches buyers the old playbook can't.
Is your influencer spend judged on reach or on what it actually sells? Reframing that one question changes which creators you hire — where do you stand?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week and Modern Retail.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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