E.l.f. Beauty is known for making viral, lower-priced makeup products and promoting them on platforms like TikTok and Roblox.
The 19-year-old beauty brand primarily built its business using digital marketing and focuses on finding platforms that have a built-in community to target specific groups of people, said Laurie Lam, a former longtime L’Oreal exec who joined E.l.f. Beauty as chief brand officer in 2022.
“We’re a company that believes in failing forward — if something doesn’t work, we’ll just pivot,” Lam said.
Earlier this month, E.l.f. launched a Roblox game that allows players to earn virtual currency called Robux in exchange for playing entrepreneurs who run shops named after E.l.f.’s products, including its mascara and primer.
Lam said the decision to create a branded Roblox game “was probably inarguably one of the hardest things that I think we’ve done as an organization,” because the brand wanted to target Gen Z gamers interested in becoming entrepreneurs in a way that wouldn’t annoy them. Since launching in November, more than 2 million users visited E.l.f.’s Roblox activation.
Besides Roblox, E.l.f. also has a presence on Twitch to target female gamers who had alias usernames because they don’t match the demographic of men gamers, Lam said. According to Circana’s 2023 Makeup Consumer report, Twitch is a small but growing platform for driving makeup sales. Six percent of makeup wearers who cite social media as their source of information about makeup said that Twitch influenced a makeup purchase, up from 3% in 2022.
E.l.f. also has a big presence on TikTok, with 1.2 million followers on its account. TikTok has high engagement numbers and users give feedback that’s used to develop and sell products, Lam said. For example, E.l.f. brought back a seasonal product called Jelly Pop makeup primer after TikTokers asked to buy it year-round. In another example, TikTok users asked E.l.f. to create a more hydrating version of a concealer and foundation product called Camo CC Cream, and E.l.f. plans to develop the product, Lam said.
Larissa Jensen, VP and global beauty industry advisor at research firm Circana, said that TikTok is a major driver in driving makeup sales. According to the 2023 Circana report, TikTok is the top social media platform to influence sales, outranking Instagram for the first time in 2023. Fifty-two percent of makeup wearers said TikTok influenced their makeup purchases compared to 45% of makeup wearers who said that Instagram influenced their makeup purchases. For Gen Z, 75% of makeup wearers cited TikTok as the top platform for influencing their purchases.
“Considering that about one-third of E.l.f.’s users are Gen Z, TikTok is the place for the brand to reach their audience,” she said.
Lam said that E.l.f.’s strategy of investing in new platforms doesn’t use a traditional marketing calendar where campaigns are planned out months in advance. Instead, a campaign can come together in a week.
For example, E.l.f. ran a regional Super Bowl TV ad this year starring actress Jennifer Coolidge that was co-written by “White Lotus” creator Mike White. The TV campaign came together a few weeks ahead of the Super Bowl, and Coolidge has since been featured in a couple of other E.l.f. campaigns this year, including a promotion for a set of lip products that Coolidge helped to create.
These ways of marketing appear to be paying off for E.l.f.. The company recently reported a 76% year-over-year increase in sales during its fiscal second quarter earnings. The company forecast that net sales will grow between 55% and 57% year-over-year during its fiscal year of 2024.
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