E.l.f. challenges companies to ‘Dupe That!’ for latest purpose stunt

Dive Brief:

E.l.f. Beauty launched a new campaign entitled “Dupe That!” inviting other companies to join the “unicorn parade” by prioritizing making a positive impact, per a press release. The effort spotlights the brand’s fiscal year 2024 Impact Report.
Creative features fanciful unicorns alongside facts about the brand’s own impact. The effort will span the brand’s social media and a two-page spread in The New York Times in addition to appearing on the E-Panel wall in The World Trade Center retail complex in New York.
The effort was created with Madwell and comes after the cosmetics purveyor released its third annual Impact Report earlier this month. The campaign joins a handful of other purpose-driven marketing stunts by the beauty brand this year.

Dive Insight:

E.l.f.'s latest campaign places it alongside other marketers, like Olaplex and McDonald’s, who are riffing on dupe culture, or the tactic of finding affordable replacements for more costly items. However, the cosmetics marketer isn’t new to “dupes” — the brand’s affordably priced products are often compared to higher-end options on the market.

With “Dupe That!” the brand is inviting other companies to look beyond the surface to learn what E.l.f. is doing to drive a positive impact. The campaign highlights E.l.f.’s fiscal year 2024 Impact Report, which details the actions and progress the marketer has made to support positive change for people, products and the planet across its five brands, including E.l.f. Cosmetics, E.l.f. Skin, Well People, Naturium, and Alicia Keys’ makeup brand Keys Soulcare.

Creative for the campaign calls attention to facts that help illustrate E.l.f.’s impact, like its decision to donate at least 2% of previous-year profits to help drive positive change. The brand’s pricing also allows for consumers to buy five of its lip oils for the price of one of its prestige competitors, per release details. Additionally, E.l.f. called out its status as the only U.S. publicly traded company to have a corporate board of directors that is 78% women and 44% diverse. A 30-second video helps to explain the effort.

“Our e.l.f. ethos powers purpose, our purpose powers people, our people power performance – and our performance powers possibilities,” said Kory Marchisotto, E.l.f. Beauty’s CMO, in a statement. “The more we unapologetically lean into our purpose, the stronger the signals to keep using our megaphone to help make the world an increasingly brighter place for every eye, lip and face.”

E.l.f. has often put purpose at the center of its marketing strategy. In May, the brand launched a “So Many Dicks” campaign calling for more diversity in corporate boardrooms, The campaign, which was one of the top marketing campaigns from the first half of 2024, takes its name from the finding that there are nearly as many men named Richard, Rick or Dick as women from diverse groups on U.S. corporate boards.

This year, E.l.f. also championed women race car drivers at the Indianapolis 500 as part of a branded experience following an expanded partnership with professional race car driver Katherine Legge. In October, the brand with North Carolina A&T University published the “Not-So-White Paper,” which leveraged research to communicate the importance of diversity in the success of U.S. publicly traded companies.

E.l.f. continues to rank as a top cosmetics brand among Gen Z, according to Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock with Teens survey. E.l.f. executives when discussing the brand’s fiscal Q4 and full-year earnings with investors earlier this year noted that its heavier investments in marketing are winning over younger consumers and helping to grow sales.