how e.l.f. became Gen Z's beauty brand

don’t call it a comeback

though maybe you should? let’s set the stage so you can see how wild their growth has been.

flashback to 2016. 2 years after a majority stake was acquired by a PE firm, e.l.f. is doing about $210m annually¹ . this is 12 years after launching in 2004 as a dollar store beauty brand. over the following 5 years, they’d grow by about 10% YoY, eventually hitting $280m in 2021.

then something clicked.

in 2022, they grew by 23% YoY
in 2023, they grew by over 50% YoY
in 2024, they grew by over 75% YoY

in other words, they went from $210m to $280m in 5 years (~50%),
but it took them just 3 to go from $280m to $1b (~260%)^{all here & here}

what’s more astounding (to me) is that it’s supposed to get harder to grow in % as you hit numbers like $500m or $1b. but they went into hypergrowth at that point after solid returns for years and years.

so what the hell happened?

it basically comes down to global expansion, digital growth, and brand.

let’s break down their revenue sources in 2024, compared to 2022:

1. international expansion. 15% of revenue²⁰²⁴ v. 11%²⁰²²

2. top US retailers (Target, Walmart, Ulta). 58% of revenue²⁰²⁴ v. 61%²⁰²²

3. e-commerce. 16% of revenue²⁰²⁴ v 10%²⁰²²

4. other US partners. 11% of revenue²⁰²⁴ v. 18%²⁰²²

so in terms of their revenue mix, we can see that:

1. international expansion and e-commerce have become larger pieces

2. they’ve actually become more reliant on their top retailers, despite retail expansion efforts

3. no massive shifts in sales channels

the most surprising part to me? despite many citing retail & global expansion as a key part of their insane past few years, retail has actually grown slower than other channels, especially new retail. and while global growth has been great, it doesn’t come close to explaining their growth.

what does? their brand & marketing

how to growth with Gen Z

in what might be the greatest Gen Z marketing we’ve seen ever, here’s just some of what e.l.f. got up to:

• they partnered with loved brands. like Chipotle, Dunkin Donuts, and Liquid Death. for Chipotle, they released an avocado makeup sponge, spicy salsa lip gloss, and a palette inspired by Chipotle’s serving trays. the others were similar.

• they focused on digital. from their e-com experience to their social strategy, they knew where their audience was

• original content, made for Gen Z. cosmetic criminals was a short true crime film about stolen cosmetics (and selling security devices to protect them). they crowdsourced a film on TikTok. they created music that hit Spotify charts.

• they tried new things. the e.l.f. TikTok challenge became the most viral campaign ever on TikTok. they were amongst the first brands to launch on BeReal, and went all in to make a splash. they dropped an NFT.

• they were cheeky and bold. their “So Many Dicks” campaign highlighted the imbalance between men and women in boardrooms. whether you agree with the politics or not, it catches attention. and their audience (Gen Z) tends to lean their way heavily. they named an influencer CEO for the day (twice), they

all of these tactics centered around a few core strategies:

1. consistent brand promise. e.l.f. is about affordable quality for everyone. this has never changed. they focus on social and UGC, they crowdsource content, their e.l.f. challenge was even about how they are for any eyes, lip, or face.

2. really getting their audience and staying hip to the culture (the least cool way of saying this, i’m aware). just like this generation, they are predictably unpredictable, trying new things without fear. they embrace constant change and don’t allow strict rules or thoughts to stop them from being out there.

3. nailing social media, especially TikTok. they’ve focused heavily here, as that’s where their audience is. and while this is true for many brands, they’ve gone viral more times than any i’ve seen over the past five years. and i’m not even anywhere near their target audience.

4. standing out & getting attention. they are quirky. they try things. i’m sure they’ve had a bunch of failures that we don’t even notice, but that doesn’t stop them from doing things built to garner widespread attention.

who you need

e.l.f. is very unique, so looking into their team approach was fascinating. their team’s still pretty small (only 965 on LinkedIn). to give you some idea, for each LinkedIn employee, they make over $1m a year. (obviously, not all of their employees are on LI)

• you don’t need a massive team. their marketing team is ~100, leaning heavily on external partners.they have fewer than 10 designers, for example. that includes packaging and merchandising design

• a good mix of marketing skillsets. they assembled experts across integrated marketing, immersive marketing, social media, brand marketing, paid, content, lifecycle, community, marketing ops and tech, comms. most interesting to me was the relative size of their social team (quite large) and marketers focused on newer channels

• industry experience. almost their entire team has experience in beauty (or at least personal care), especially the leadership team

• they don’t just have roles to have them. despite their significant partnerships, they don’t have a partnerships team. they don’t have a head of SEO, they have a very small paid media team, and a small creative team as well.

• great agency partners & freelancers. if you want to grow fast, you don’t necessarily need to hire lots of in-house talent. they leverage external talent a LOT. and it’s worked wonders.

credits

CMO: Kory Marchisotto
CIMO: Patrick O’Keefe
CCO: Ashley Rosebrook
VP, Marketing Ops: Kristen Savitsky
AVP, Creative: Francine Dreyfus
Director, Integrated Marketing: Alex Kasper
Director, Brand: Rex Chou
TikTok creative: Movers + Shakers
Digital: Case Agency
UK creative: Southpaw Agency
Creative: 72andSunny Amsterdam
Creative: Oberland
Creative: Madwell
Performance: Tinuiti
Creative: Shadow
Video: Imposter
PR & Comms: Bold
Social: Viral Nation
Interim VP Brand: Christine Song