Why Legacy CPG Giants Must Rethink Influence — Before It’s Too Late

The old playbook worked. Until it didn’t. And in 2025, the gap between brands that evolve and those that insist on old tactics is growing into a chasm.

For decades, legacy CPG companies thrived on scale, relationships, and mass media muscle. A single commercial — with the right face, the right story, the right TV slot — could flip buyer resistance into demand. That playbook built empires. But in today’s digital-first, AI-accelerated world, that formula is fading fast. And the brands still relying on it are being outpaced not by better products — but by better relevance.

This shift isn’t just about social media. It’s about how influence works now, and who consumers and B2B buyers trust.

A Story From the Old Playbook

In 2014, one a global leader FMCG company faced a launch barrier: a new premium product line was being quietly rejected by major B2B buyers — think Walmart, Carrefour, and top grocery chains across the globe.

So what did we do?

We hired Robert De Niro. Flew him to Italy. Filmed an unforgettable ad. We never brought the product up again in boardroom conversations. Instead, we ran a national campaign for 90 days.

By month three, the very buyers who passed on the product were chasing us to place it on their shelves.

That was the power of the traditional marketing machine: a heavy narrative, amplified by TV and celebrity endorsement, applied at the right cultural pressure point. It wasn’t just persuasive — it rewired demand at the top.

But that was a decade ago.

Today’s Buyer Doesn’t Watch — They Scroll, Search, and Trust Differently

Fast-forward to 2025.

Would that same commercial — even with the same face — move the needle?

Maybe. But not like it did. Not at the scale, speed, or depth it once could.

Today’s consumers and B2B stakeholders:

• Trust real people over perfect ones

• Discover products through feeds, forums, UGC, and AI recommendations

• Value authenticity, social proof, and category understanding more than production gloss

A 23-year-old micro-influencer with a steak reel can drive more targeted conversion than a Super Bowl ad. And buyers increasingly ask: “What’s the sentiment online?” before they call the supplier back.

The ground has shifted. And it's still moving.

The Digital Layer is No Longer Optional — Even for Giants

This isn’t about abandoning traditional strategies. It’s about acknowledging that digital fluency isn’t a startup trait — it’s now a baseline for relevance.

Legacy CPG companies need to:

• Build in-house content engines capable of social-scale storytelling

• Treat UGC and influencer partnerships as core strategy, not add-ons

• Leverage AI to monitor real-time sentiment, emerging narratives, and microtrend data

• Understand that authority today is distributed, and influence is co-created

Most importantly, they must stop thinking of “digital” as a cost center — and start recognizing it as a demand-generation asset that rivals TV in impact and outpaces it in adaptability.

Rockwyn Insight:

Legacy brands aren’t being disrupted by better products — they’re being disrupted by more adaptive storytelling.The future belongs to companies that can still own the room, but know how to win the scroll.