Beauty brand elf Cosmetics launches production department
Investing in high-quality original content seems less and less a passing fad in the fashion and beauty industry.
Brands in that space are increasingly setting up in-house production departments to create and collaborate on content that goes beyond traditional advertising – and into worlds like arthouse film and urgent digital culture.
You can now count Elf, the cheeky cosmetics label that feeds on the zeitgeist and seems to cater to a broad demographic, among them. The brand has launched elf Made, an in-house production arm that will create long-form and short-form content based on both its products and what its users are obsessed with in the media.
“The spirit of what we do at eleven surprises and delights a community of people. We also want to achieve a goal with it,” says Patrick O’Keefe, VP of integrated marketing communications at the brand.
O’Keefe is in the process of hiring a VP of Entertainment at Elf, someone who will build on the buzzy entries the company has made into the mainstream. That includes two Super Bowl spots from the past two years — one at the height of Jennifer Coolidge’s “White Lotus” fever, and the other a gathering of the cast of “Suits” with Judge Judy, all in honor of makeup . In early September, Elf announced the release of a custom music project called ‘Get Ready With Me’. The original album features artists such as Betty Who and Charlotte Rose Benjamin.
“Starbucks, Nike and LVMH are all looking at ways to connect in this space. Saint Laurent is doing exciting things. The brands that will survive will evolve with the times,” O’Keefe says of others in the market they look to for inspiration.
Inspiration comes from strange places. An early hit for Eleven was a spot they created together with marketing agency Shadow and The Weather Channel.
“We had just launched our Halo Glow Liquid Filte and were in dire need of a holiday campaign. The Weather Channel came to us with the insight that eight in 10 women will change their beauty habits because of the weather,” he said. “As a child we heard that Meghan Trainor wanted to be a weather forecaster, and that is how our spot Glow Storm was born.”
It looks like they already have a pitch for a Netflix Christmas original.
