Magnificence merchandise by e.l.f. cosmetics are seen on show at a Goal retailer in Union Sq. on April 04, 2025 in New York, New York.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Pictures
Be careful Sony, a brand new music producer is on the town. And this time it is the identical model that makes your favourite lip gloss.
E.l.f. Magnificence introduced late final month the discharge of “Mirror Combine,” an unique album that includes music from seven rising artists. The album comes because the make-up firm ramps up its advertising spend, fueled partly by tariff refunds.
E.l.f.’s pursuit of music is a part of a rising wave of shops mixing procuring with leisure.
The album options artists together with a WNBA participant and a Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter. It is out there to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Roblox, in line with a press launch.
Along with elevating the voices of unbiased artists, the brand new music is meant to assist E.l.f. higher join with its prospects, Chief Built-in Advertising and marketing Officer Patrick O’Keefe instructed CNBC in an interview.
“Once you put group on the heart of the whole lot … packages and campaigns and constructing music, which evokes emotion … while you do this, it modifications the dialog. And we wish to be prime of thoughts with our group,” O’Keefe stated.
“Mirror Combine” is E.l.f.’s second album, following the corporate’s 2024 launch of “Get Prepared With Music, The Album.” Its first enterprise into music, the music “eyes.lips.face.,” debuted in 2019.
“We had been one of many first movers on TikTok, and we created an unique music round eyes, lips, face, and it went viral. It propelled the model into new dimensions,” O’Keefe stated. “Individuals did not know what eyes, lips, face — what E.l.f. — stood for, and we created the music to embrace what it stands for and what it means for us as a model.”
E.l.f. Magnificence launched its “Mirror Combine” album as a part of a rising advertising technique.
Picture by Jess Albano
The E.l.f.-released music is a part of the corporate’s technique in “disruptive advertising,” or advertising that goals to create moments customers will take note of.
E.l.f. has additionally launched a TikTok actuality present and have become one of many first manufacturers to launch a channel on Twitch and supply dwell procuring on the platform.
“Our advertising works greatest while you begin seeing that virality on innovation, our means to feed that and be capable of maintain that demand and construct rising franchises,” CEO Tarang Amin stated on the Deutsche Financial institution dbAccess World Shopper Convention in early June.
“We’re an leisure firm that occurs to promote magnificence merchandise,” Amin joked.
The place retail meets leisure
E.l.f. will not be alone in its foray into leisure.
Days earlier than E.l.f.’s album debut, Hole introduced a multiyear partnership with boy band Simply Your Sort, or JYT. The clothes retailer can be answerable for growing a multi-episode docuseries, nationwide mall tour and a clothes assortment with the rising pop stars, in line with a press launch.
The enterprise is the corporate’s first collaboration underneath its newly created “fashiontainment” platform. The initiative comes as the corporate has undergone a multiyear revival after the retailer closed about 2,000 shops and annual gross sales fell by $3.5 billion between 2001 and 2021.
Pam Kaufman, Hole’s chief leisure officer, will oversee the venture and stated in a press launch the partnership with JYT will “create one thing a lot greater than a marketing campaign.”
“Hole has all the time lived on the intersection of fashion, music and tradition, and our Fashiontainment platform builds on that legacy by placing our manufacturers on the heart of the tales and cultural moments folks care about,” Kaufman stated.
Individuals stroll by means of the rain in entrance of a Hole retailer throughout a Nor’easter in Occasions Sq. on September 27, 2026 in New York Metropolis.
Craig T Fruchtman | Getty Pictures
Hole CEO Richard Dickson tapped into the same sentiment earlier this yr, saying conventional promoting campaigns are simply not chopping it anymore.
“Trend is leisure, and right now’s prospects aren’t simply shopping for attire, they’re shopping for into manufacturers that inform compelling tales and drive cultural conversations,” Dickson stated in a press release in January saying the creation of the chief leisure officer function.
In current weeks, Wendy’s additionally debuted an emo album titled, “Songs to Hearken to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot.” Not like the earnest makes an attempt of E.l.f. and Hole to create music that may resonate with followers, the fast-food chain created humorous renditions of songs, together with “She Stated She Did not Need Fries” and “The Finest Combo Meal on the Worst Night time of My Life.”
The lead music has generated greater than 450,000 streams on Spotify, and the announcement gained a whole lot of hundreds of likes on Instagram.
Wendy’s CEO Bob Wright named advertising as one of many firm’s key areas of focus throughout its most up-to-date earnings name.
“We now have one of the crucial recognizable manufacturers within the business, and we have to make our messaging, media and inventive drive a significant reference to our prospects and drive site visitors to our eating places,” he stated.
That want is especially true as youthful customers achieve spending energy.
“Cultural relevance strikes the complete buy funnel — particularly for Gen Z,” United Expertise Company stated in a report launched in June. “Customers who understand a model as culturally related usually tend to discover it (90% of Gen Z), assume favorably of it (87% of Gen Z), contemplate it (81% of Gen Z), and finally purchase from it (68% of Gen Z) — proving tradition’s ROI extends far past model notion.”
E.l.f.’s advertising spend
At E.l.f., O’Keefe stated the corporate makes use of the idea of unaided consciousness, or a shopper’s means to call a model with out being prompted, as a metric to measure its advertising’s success. Unaided consciousness of E.l.f. Magnificence has tripled within the final 5 years, rising to 45% from 13%, he stated.
The firm reported that income doubled throughout its most not too long ago reported quarter, which turned the cosmetics model’s thirtieth consecutive quarter of progress.
On the similar time, the corporate has prioritized spending on progressive advertising campaigns. Greater than 20% of internet gross sales within the fiscal first quarter had been reinvested in advertising and digital, in line with the corporate’s most up-to-date earnings name. That share is predicted to rise all through the remainder of the yr, the corporate stated.
The elevated advertising push can be funded partly by tariff refunds. The firm obtained $50 million within the three months that ended June 30 after the Supreme Court docket struck down President Donald Trump‘s “liberation day” tariffs and a federal decide ordered the cash to be returned.
“Our plan is to completely reinvest that cash in each pricing, to have a superior worth proposition, in addition to elevated advertising throughout our total portfolio of manufacturers,” CEO Amin instructed CNBC in an interview in August. “We really feel we by no means ought to have had the tariffs to start with, so let’s put money into our manufacturers to drive the power that we see.”