Pimple picking, sleeping in your makeup, not getting enough sleep… There’s no denying it, we’ve all committed “skin sins”. And although Gen Z is the most engaged segment in skincare, it turns out they commit more skin sins than any other generation!
What’s the last thing you need when you’re stressed about your skincare slip ups? Another celeb spokesperson in a fancy bathroom selling you an expensive cream. So while most skincare brands play up aspirational versions of perfection, e.l.f. SKIN saw an opportunity to go against the grain and take the shame out of skin sinning—no pressure, no judgement, no unrealistic expectations.
People know e.l.f. for high quality makeup at a great price, but the brand's recognition in skincare was low. As e.l.f. SKIN looked to gain awareness and consideration in 2024, our goal was to break through with Gen Z by showing them we have their back like no other skincare brand can.
Known for relatability and accessibility, we weren’t afraid to lean into the real, messy, relatable side of skincare. And then help our community find a better way.
Enter e.l.f. SKIN’s Holy Hydration collection: an affordable, gentle, day-to-night routine that can help you overcome your skin sins.
The idea: Create a bold, disruptive, and hilarious 360-campaign that spotlights our community's most common sins, points the finger at the true culprit (a skin nemesis we named “The Sinfluencer”), and leads them down the path to salvation with Holy Hydration.
Like everything e.l.f. does, we started by putting our community at the heart of it all. We asked fans to confess their most shameful skin sins through IG, TikTok, Twitch and Facebook. No judgement allowed. (After all, we've all popped a pimple or two.) Not only did we directly engage our community to build strong brand love, we even used some of their responses in our content throughout the campaign. And yes, we were shocked to learn some people are using bleach wipes and hand sanitizer on their face.
Next, we gave our community someone to blame. We combined humor with classic horror movie tropes to introduce "The Sinfluencer," played by Hacks star Megan Stalter. The Sinfluencer is the real culprit behind bad skin behavior, she’s the little voice in your head telling you to wash with that crusty bar of soap or skip the SPF. In our hero video, The Sinfluencer appears in the bathrooms of unsuspecting Gen Zers, tempting them to sleep in their makeup and waste their money on expensive products, before Holy Hydration appears like a miracle to save them and send her packing.
Our multi-channel, international campaign spanned TV, retail, digital, and beyond—from iconic billboards in OOH, subways and the Tube, to Roblox worlds, website takeovers and double-decker buses in London. Our digital assets took over e.l.f. SKIN’s landing page on mobile and desktop. We also created a Skin Sin Quiz for e.l.f.’s website and Pinterest, where fans could confess their sins and find the right products to be their skincare saviors. We launched paid assets across Meta, Reddit, Twitch, and more. Our retail assets gave shoppers the chance to address their skin sins from the homepages of Walmart, Target, Ulta, even Amazon Fire TV.
We rounded out the campaign with hilarious social posts that used recognizable TikTok formats to help fans get to know our Sinfluencer character even better. She showed us what’s in her bag (dirt to clog your pores) and even reacted to unhinged fan comments.
Our goal was to break through with Gen Z and build awareness for e.l.f. SKIN’s Holy Hydration collection, leading with the brand’s core values of humor, understanding, and relatability.
By creating e.l.f. SKIN’s biggest brand campaign to date, not only did we make a splash for Holy Hydration, we put e.l.f. SKIN on the map for Gen Z.
The campaign garnered over 580 million impressions, led to a 135% lift in site traffic to e.l.f. SKIN, and increased purchase intent by 16%. Even better? The brand saw a 10x jump in sales of the Holy Hydration franchise.
Most importantly, we found a heavenly way to break boundaries, banish shame, and bring the e.l.f.ing fun back to skincare.
