E.l.f. and American Eagle lean into TikTok for new partnership

Beauty brand e.l.f. and teen retailer American Eagle have both built their brands by catering to Gen Z shoppers. Now, they’re joining forces on a new collaboration that just might “break TikTok,” according to American Eagle Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers.

The limited-edition collection, the product of nine months of partnership between the Oakland, California-based e.l.f. and the Pittsburgh-based American Eagle, includes a series of jeans-themed products such as a “Denim Daze Eyeshadow Palette” for $16 and a denim makeup bag for $22 to $24. Items will be available online and in stores.

“One of the reasons our orbits are magnetically attracted to each other is that we’re both Gen Z favorites that are in the business of shaping youth culture,” said Brommers.

To spread the word, the brands will together debut a “Selfie to Belfie” marketing push that encourages customers to post both “selfies” of their faces and “belfies” of their butts on TikTok. The campaign will include an influencer content series with eight influencers including actress Carlacia Grant from hit TV drama “Outer Banks” using a custom TikTok community filter. The brands also co-created a custom song to debut as part of the campaign.

Despite the current backlash against TikTok in Congress and attempts by lawmakers to ban the app here, both e.l.f. and American Eagle are still heavily invested in the social media channel.

“We’ve seen this movie before,” said Kory Marchisotto, e.l.f.’s chief marketing officer. “We’re going to keep operating until which time something tells us to move in a different direction.” She noted that the bulk of her brand’s audience is among the 150 million Americans on the platform.

Brommers agreed.

“We know Gen Z is absolutely engaged in TikTok,” he said. “We’re going to continue to lean into TikTok and be aware of what’s going on but this hasn’t changed our marketing efforts with this collab or anything else we have going on.”

Neither marketer would disclose how they are dividing the marketing expenses of the new partnership. The companies worked with Shadow and Movers + Shakers.

This is not the first brand collaboration for e.l.f., which, by teaming up with the likes of Chipotle and Dunkin’ in the past, has become a regular in the brand partnership space as the beauty purveyor seeks to add newness and spice to its lineup. The company characterized the American Eagle partnership as its “first-ever fashion collaboration with fellow #1 Gen Z brand.”

“This collection is the first representation of taking all the iconic codes and cues from American Eagle and bringing them to life in an adjacent dimension authentic to American Eagle and authentic to e.l.f.,” said Marchisotto.