an enterprise launch, done properly.

the challenge

Launching GLUTA-HYA Lip Serum on TikTok Shop meant taking one of the world's most recognised skincare brands into the platform's fastest-moving retail environment, with Unilever's standards travelling with it. Enterprise launches carry obligations a DTC brand never has to think about: brand safety, sign-off processes, retail relationships and price integrity across every channel the product sells in.

The easy route on TikTok Shop is noise and discounting. For a brand like Vaseline that route was never on the table. Constant discounting devalues the brand and trains the audience to wait. The launch had to prove the channel could work on the brand's terms.

the approach

We approach TikTok Shop as a trading channel first, and for enterprise brands that starts with the rules of engagement, not the content calendar.

value, not discount

The serum sold at RRP, never below retail. The first price the audience sees becomes the price they expect to pay, so the reason to buy in-platform was built through added value instead of price cuts: offers structured around what the customer gets, not what gets knocked off. Protecting RRP protects more than margin. It protects every retailer that stocks the brand, so demand created on TikTok flows to TikTok Shop, to the brand's own site and to retail shelves without channel conflict. We go deeper on this doctrine in our guide for premium brands on TikTok Shop.

brand safety as an operating system

Governance was built into the day-to-day running of the shop rather than bolted on. Creators were selected for brand fit, briefs kept messaging inside brand and regulatory lines, and listings were held to the standard a global brand expects, with the operational discipline handled by our shop management team. The goal was a channel Unilever could trust on Monday morning, not just celebrate on launch day.

launch mechanics

The launch itself ran on the same engine we use for every brand, tuned for enterprise. A hero-product architecture put GLUTA-HYA Lip Serum at the centre of optimised, search-visible listings. Education-led content did the persuading, showing what the serum does and how it fits a routine, because on TikTok Shop an audience that understands a product buys it. Paid amplification then put budget behind what was proven to work, measured on GMV rather than vanity metrics.

what it proved

GLUTA-HYA Lip Serum launched on TikTok Shop with its pricing intact, its positioning intact and its retail relationships intact. That is the result that matters most at enterprise scale: the channel opened without anything being traded away to open it.

The launch also proved a wider point. TikTok Shop is often written off as a discount channel, too chaotic for brands with equity to protect. Run with governance, RRP protection and value-led offers, it becomes the opposite: an acquisition engine where more than 75% of buyers are net-new to the brand, operating inside the rules a global business demands. It is why Unilever brands sit alongside DTC natives on the Somerce client list, and why the playbook behind this launch now anchors how we take every enterprise brand onto the platform.