Chris Barron, General Manager Personal Care UK&I / SVP Deodorants Europe – Unilever
For Unilever, sports sponsorship has been the perfect route into the popular conversation in 2025.
Its research has found that 63% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that aligns itself to something they are passionate about, while 74% feel more loyalty to a brand that is involved with sport.
As Chris Barron noted in the opening presentation of the ISC Brands and Sponsorship Summit 2025, a place at the London Marathon can be harder to come by than Glastonbury tickets. So for Unilever, the Radox sponsorship of this year’s race offered rare cultural currency.
Radox hit media touchpoints right around the race. TV personality Kelly Brook’s preparation and participation created a longer-term narrative, while activations on the day took Radox right into each runner’s experience: providing water during the event and product samples to revive weary bodies afterwards. Two Radox runners even hit the course dressed as bottles of shower gel, generating ample social media content.
For the British and Irish Lions’ victorious tour of Australia, Dove Men+Care reached those rugby union fans lucky enough to be making the trip Down Under and those who watched from home. Activations on the ground in Australia gave supporters a place to congregate, while specially branded Father’s Day packs offered an ideal way of combining the IP with personal and family rituals.
Unilever’s sponsorship of women’s sport has paid dividends in recent months. As a backer of both UEFA Euro 2025 and England’s Lionesses, it was a huge part of the women’s football story that dominated the sporting summer. And it is hoping to double up this weekend when England’s Red Roses, supported by Dove, go for Women’s Rugby World Cup glory at a sold-out Allianz Stadium.
There is more to come. Unilever will be part of what may become the biggest sporting event of all time as a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in North America next summer, before returning as a partner of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™ in Brazil. As sport becomes culture, sponsorship is taking Unilever a route to the heart of what matters to its consumers.