Investing in premium original content is looking less and less like a passing fad in the fashion and beauty business.
Brands in that space have increasingly been founding in-house production divisions to create and collaborate on content that moves past traditional advertising — and further into worlds like art house film and urgent digital culture.
You can now count e.l.f., the cheeky cosmetics label that feeds on the zeitgeist and looks to serve broad demographics, among them. The brand has launched e.l.f. Made, an internal production arm that will create long and shortform content based on both its products and what its users are obsessing over in media.
“The spirit of what we do at e.l.f. is surprising and delighting a community of people. We’d also like to bring some purpose,” said Patrick O’Keefe, VP of integrated marketing communications at the brand.
O’Keefe is in the process of hiring a VP of Entertainment at e.l.f., one who will build on the buzzy entres the company has made in the mainstream. That includes two Super Bowl spots over the past two years — one at the height of Jennifer Coolidge’s “White Lotus” fever, and the other a gathering of the “Suits” cast with Judge Judy, all in the celebration of makeup. In early September, e.l.f. announced the release of a bespoke music project called “Get Ready With Me.” The original album features artists including Betty Who and Charlotte Rose Benjamin.
“Starbucks, Nike, LVMH are all like looking at ways of connecting in this space. Saint Laurent is doing some exciting things. The brands that are going to continue to survive are going to evolve with the times,” said O’Keefe of others in the market they look to for inspiration.
Inspiration comes from strange places. An early hit for e.l.f. was a spot they put together with marketing agency Shadow and The Weather Channel.
“We had just launched our Halo Glow Liquid Filte and we were in desperate need of a holiday campaign. The Weather Channel came to us with the insight that 8 out of 10 women will change their beauty behavior because of the weather,” he said. “We learned that Meghan Trainor wanted to be a weather woman as a kid, and that’s how our spot Glow Storm was created.”
Sounds like they’ve already got a pitch for a Netflix Christmas original.