Aboriginal Australians have the world’s oldest continuous culture yet are among the most disadvantaged groups in Australia.

Palmolive’s Skin Food range uses Native ingredients like Davidson Plum and Quandong Peach. These ingredients are a growing trend in Australia, appearing everywhere from ice-cream to crisps.

Native ingredients are only available today because Aboriginal people have grown and nurtured them as part of their culture for thousands of years, yet Aboriginal communities see no real benefit from the trend - because Aboriginal Growers represent less than 2% of the Native ingredient supply chain.

Palmolive had a social and commercial ambition: improve on that 2% while building the Skin Food brand.

Our objectives:

1) Partner with Aboriginal growers to increase their 2% share of the native ingredient supply chain

2) Empower Aboriginal growers to determine and develop the future of the supply chain

3) Communicate these changes to build both Skin Food and positively affect the overall Palmolive Masterbrand

Inspired by First Nations’ philosophy, We not Me is a totally new way for Palmolive to build a brand, we are adding purpose to the brand’s must do’s, along with profit and commercials. Living it means Colgate-Palmolive is reimagining a healthier future by reimagining our own approach. Together we’re implementing it across engagement with partners, employees and industry, by:

1) Championing change. Working with Native Extracts, a company that sources our ingredients, we’re championing authentic inclusion of First Nations growers in the whole chain - leading the way for other manufacturers to make this change.

2) Building partnerships for lasting change including infrastructure grants, sponsorships, and social media training to develop growers’ expertise.

3) Sharing the story. We work with Aboriginal creatives to tell the Palmolive Skin Food story. We’re running this work across a range of Indigenous community media, owned and partner channels, and packaging.

We went hard on listening, travelling to our growers, including Auntie Pat in Jabir Jabir country, Dom in Ngawait country, and more.

As we listened, something interesting happened.

We started to hear between the lines.

We heard that growers’ connection to country matters.

It’s this connection that knows native plants help regenerate the land, this connection that directly nurtures native ingredients, and this connection that grows culture.

But this connection was matched only by Aboriginal communities’ disconnection from its commercial benefit.

Palmolive’s opportunity was to partner with aboriginal growers to help redefine the industry with a focus on connection to the country.

This led to our key insight:

The problem wasn’t just 2% representation in the supply chain,

the problem was the odds stacked against indigenous growers.

Our breakthrough moment came when talking with Auntie Pat about her ambitions for her community, we realised that no-one overcomes the odds alone.

The creative idea, “We not Me” is brought to life through different film executions on online video platforms and Meta, telling the story of the growers and native ingredients, and its benefits to consumers.

The campaign kicked off in March 2023 and is currently ongoing in digital channels. The media strategy implemented a retargeting campaign in 2024, continuing from 2023 success to reinforce the messaging and drive maximum awareness delivering the highest eARL of 2.35% (planned/objective of 1.00%), suggesting strong interest and high resonance with messaging.

Beyond online creative executions, this is also brought to live on the product design and packaging:

Clear support of First Nations growers within the product design and packaging

Packaging artwork by “Aboriginal Art by Lani”

Easy way for consumers to “meet the growers” via QR code

Highlighting First Nation’s growers and suppliers with credit on product design

​​Palmolive has created impact as a champion of change:

1. Brand and commercial impacts

- Over 1M Palmolive products sold in the last 18 months that include Australian native ingredients sourced from Aboriginal growers & suppliers, representing AUD$6.8m retail sales.

- Positive impact on the Skin Food brand and Palmolive Masterbrand, with particularly

strong lifts on “is a brand I trust” and “regularly sparks my interest”, signalling

increased relevance.

- 25% of purchases are from a new customer universe.

2. Long-term impacts

Palmolive is living We not Me through:

- a strong Reconciliation Action Plan.

- investment partnerships with individual growers and the industry body FNBBAA for a better future.

- Working with key customer Woolworths on new avenues for First Nations support.

Aboriginal grower Dominic Smith puts it best:

‘This Colgate-Palmolive investment has helped to connect my people back to land and culture. Its impact could ricochet across generations’.