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House of Fresh™ was a creator-led experience in Mexico, New York and Miami hosted by Unilever Personal Care during the FIFA World Cup 2026™. We set out to design a space that could help us turn the scale of the tournament into thousands of pieces of culturally relevant, socially native brand stories – and I’m very happy to say, we succeeded.
Reflecting Unilever’s wider strategy of moving from a one-to-many broadcast marketing model to a many-to-many social-first marketing approach, House of Fresh™ (Casa Fresh in Mexico) brought our brands together with creators and communities, driving engagement, advocacy and awareness at scale when the world was watching. It was the largest in-person influencer event in Unilever’s history.
We wanted to give our guests unlimited opportunities to capture shareable moments, so House of Fresh™ was a content engine by design. People could create personalised Panini-inspired football stickers, custom jerseys and charm bracelets. They met football stars and played on our LED pitch. Even the refreshments were chosen to look great in social content, and the lighting throughout was carefully planned for filming and photography on smartphones.
Our brands were visible everywhere, not just the products on display, but also through events that brand teams tailored to their own communities and authentic brand messaging, so they naturally became part of the stories that creators shared.
Rexona hosted The New York Sweat Club, where guests could enjoy immersive gaming and compete in five-a-side games for a chance to win match tickets. Dove welcomed creators to its Confidence Arcade, where the brand shared its mission to keep girls confident in sports, and invited them to learn choreography and hear from body confidence experts. Dove Men+Care celebrated game-day rituals, and Axe invited influencers to create their own fragrances with a scent expert.
We were joined by more than 2,100 creators and influencers and several came back for repeat visits. Some of our VIP guests had millions of followers – such as sports legends Roberto Carlos, Daniel Sturridge and Marshawn Lynch. Some were nano creators with much smaller, ultra-engaged communities.
Unilever being the Official Personal Care Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ presented us with an opportunity for our brands to drive demand with an unmissable experience that felt part of football culture.
We wanted our brands to be talked about and our aim was to drive volume, variety and velocity of content. To do that we knew we had to come up with a creative, socially led and culturally salient experience that could compete outside our own categories. Something just as good – or even better! – than the event’s other sponsors.
We put the experience and creator audiences first and our product messages second. It was about building brand desire, not just sponsorship awareness, and connecting our brands with the emotions, the rituals and the cultural moments around football.
It’s been a very broad mix from talent-led content and match coverage to posts where creators documented their visit to House of Fresh™ or were building hype for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ experience.
We didn’t ask all our guests to tag our brands. It was clear from the footage they shot that Unilever brands were showing up – we made sure they were unmissably present without it feeling forced.
The vast majority of content was completely organic, and we found that people started capturing the spaces the moment they walked in, some sharing live from the events.
We also wanted to connect content to commerce and product discovery, so Amazon partner content creators joined us at House of Fresh™, sharing shoppable content to promote exclusive limited-edition products. Unilever Personal Care and Amazon had a seamless pathway from content to conversion, turning cultural participation from commerce to cart. Creator commerce content delivered 5x greater reach than traditional brand advertising.
We’re still counting, but so far we’ve achieved reach of 2.5 billion, including PR and social coverage. House of Fresh™ sparked 6,000 pieces of content – meaning many of our guests posted more than once about their experience. The feedback from creators has been incredible.
We’re also thrilled that the content has performed so well, with a top engagement rate of 16% versus the industry standard of 5%. It’s shown us that brand visibility doesn’t require scripts and constant mentions.
I can’t give too much away but ahead of next year we’re codifying House of Fresh™ to become a cultural platform for our brands. We’re looking at the ecosystem we can create to land our brands in culture through brilliant content that drives Desire at Scale.
It’s about shifting from a successful activation to a scalable marketing opportunity, and that’s something that we'll apply not just in our football sponsorships, but in campaigns across Unilever into the future.
House of Fresh™ was Unilever Personal Care’s creator-led marketing activation during the FIFA World Cup 2026™, hosted in Mexico, New York and Miami. Unilever designed the event as part of its shift from traditional broadcast marketing to a many-to-many social-first approach, reaching the tournament’s massive audience through thousands of culturally relevant brand stories from influencers and creators.
House of Fresh™ prioritised organic content over scripted brand mentions, proving that brand visibility is less about constant product call-outs and more about distinctive branding and relevance. The activation competed for share of voice outside Unilever’s Personal Care categories by creating shareable experiences as compelling as other FIFA World Cup 2026™ sponsors. It focused on building brand desire through cultural relevance and emotional connections to football.
More than 6 billion people watched the FIFA World Cup 2026™ tournament. House of Fresh™ helped engage this vast global audience through culturally relevant brand stories, by engaging with 2,100+ influencers who captured and shared content from the events. Content from the three House of Fresh™ pop-ups in New York, Miami and Mexico has achieved reach of 2.5 billion and counting.
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