Social Impact Through Sharing: Unilever’s Share A Meal Campaign

Leadership In Action

Overview:

As the world’s largest ice cream maker and a household name behind food brands like Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Knorr, Unilever has always been at the forefront of food innovation. But with one in five U.S. children experiencing hunger daily, Unilever aimed to raise awareness about this crisis while inspiring action. In partnership with Weber Shandwick and fellow Unilever marketing agencies, the Share A Meal campaign was born—a social-led initiative to encourage a national movement without relying on paid media. The campaign empowered audiences to help donate one million meals to families in need through a long-standing partnership with Feeding America.

With the ultimate goal of driving awareness and aligning Unilever’s brand portfolio with a meaningful cause, Share A Meal successfully tapped into the growing trend of social engagement to make a real-world impact.

Strategic Approach:

Understanding that typical images of hungry children and empty plates often fail to inspire action, we shifted the narrative. Recognizing consumers' love for food selfies, we asked them to post photos of empty plates and tag them with #ShareAMeal. For every post, Unilever pledged to donate a meal to Feeding America, up to one million meals.

To amplify the initiative, we partnered with Josh Duhamel and singer-songwriter Ciara as the campaign’s spokespeople, combining their influence with dozens of other carefully selected creators. These influencers transformed the empty plate into a creative canvas, spreading the message across social channels. With no paid media support, the campaign relied on grassroots momentum through social media, influencer content and offline activations.

Key Results:

Reached the goal of one million meals donated in under 36 hours, far exceeding expectations:

• Generated 1.6 million social engagements in the first three days, averaging 370 engagements per minute.

• Partnered with 60+ influencers, who created 100+ pieces of content reaching an audience of 119 million.

• Increased @UnileverUSA Instagram followers by 138%.

• More than doubled consumer engagement compared to 2014, with 18.5K hashtag uses.

• Featured on People Magazine’s Instagram and Snapchat Discover, averaging 3M views daily.

• Achieved 350.4 million total impressions across paid, earned, and owned channels.

• Secured 341 million earned media impressions, including 13 one-on-one interviews and one in-studio appearance.

Individual Contributions:

• Supported the social-first account with client management and inter-agency collaboration.

• Supported campaign concept development and content planning.

• Oversaw community management and reporting to ensure seamless execution.

• Managed the social-focused budget and invoicing in partnership with the Weber Shandwick finance team.