A catalyst for transformation in the world of marketing, the beauty industry is full of marketing masters who seamlessly bridge art and science augmenting creative talent with serious business chops. The campaigns generated by beauty brands and the agencies that support them deliver results that hit the bottom line but also create global impact.
Judging Criteria BeautyMatter Marketing Awards
Dive into the best of marketing for 2025
Best Strategic Collaboration: Recognizes unique relationships, effective partnerships, or initiatives accross the beauty and wellness landscape and value chain.
Cover FX - The brand’s glam team concealed over 80 of Paris Jackson's tattoos for the 2024 Grammy Awards the morning of the event. Cover FX created a 45-second campaign video showcasing the six-hour transformation, emphasizing the brand’s core message: Makeup is a form of self-expression that allows people to put forward every aspect of their personality. The video was shot, edited, and launched across social media, press, and the Cover FX website before Jackson hit the red carpet, resulting in a viral moment.
Lashify - A partnership with avant-garde artist Isamaya Ffrench fuses technical mastery with artistic vision. Together, they launched the Isamaya x Lashify Luxe Kit—a limited-edition collection that reimagines lashes as high-fashion art. This partnership is a masterclass in cross-disciplinary innovation, merging Isamaya’s artistry with Sahara’s engineering to create an expressive, luxurious lash experience.
MALIN+GOETZ - In September 2024, to kick off NYFW and celebrate the tomato home spray launch and hero tomato candle, the brand hosted an exclusive dinner party at Carbone in NYC. In addition to an exclusive dinner, MALIN+GOETZ x Carbone Fine Food collaborated on custom design and gifting elements, including co-branded, limited-edition MALIN+GOETZ x Carbone Fine Food sauce jars for all guests, branded farmer’s market tote bags, bespoke recipe books with a custom recipe card, and more, which was then amplified through a bespoke PR mailer, and influencer campaign.
Odele - A multiyear partnership with Odele and its home state WNBA team, Minnesota Lynx, came to life for the 2024 season. Beyond providing financial sponsorship and assorted hair products to Lynx players and coaching staff, the brand stocked products in showers at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square practice facility, as well as on game days, in the Target Center locker rooms.
View Imaging - A strategic partnership with Sephora began in 2016, initially providing product photography and retouching. As digital transformation swept the beauty industry, Sephora needed a consistent brand identity across all channels for 300+ curated brands and nearly 45,000 products. The challenge required a partner who could deliver Sephora's distinctive "Master Brand" aesthetic consistently across design and copy, at unprecedented scale and pace. View Imaging responded by creating a tailored 24/7, six-day-a-week creative production ecosystem.
Best Event: Recognizes the concept and execution of a digital event, live event, or event series as an extension of a brand or business.
Bartlett Brands x Cliganic Expo West Booth - Looking to debut its new brand identity, gain awareness, and expand retail partnerships, Cliganic took its “Real Life Wellness” positioning literally—creating Cliganic’s World of Wellness, which resulted in new business opportunities, expanded distribution, and real-life compliments.
FHI Heat x Barbie - A seamless mix of beauty, empowerment, and Barbie nostalgia the UNbrush event blended style, empowerment, and fun, and even included a birthday cake for Barbie. The brand leveraged its partnership with TikTok, inviting its community of top creators to help celebrate the partnership.
MATTE Projects Rabanne Million Gold For Her Launch - A show-stopping, multisensory installation at New York’s iconic Flatiron Plaza, transforming a high-foot-traffic public space into a bold, immersive expression of the Rabanne universe launched Million Gold For Her in the US market. The fragrance bottle was reimagined as a towering, pop-art-inspired, gold sculpture that guests could walk through and interact with, creating an open and photo-forward environment for both fans and unsuspecting passersby.
SCAD x Allure Magazine Beauty Unlocked - A two day, career-focused salon and networking experience united SCAD students and beauty industry thought leaders. Attendees and SCAD students participated in exclusive interactive beauty activations, motivating presentations, and insightful panels. During the event, recruiting representatives from 10 brands including L'Oréal, Esteé Lauder, The Doux, APR Corporation, Blonde + Co, CASE Agency, and Rare Beauty met with students one on one to conduct 116+ portfolio reviews.
SpaceNK The Fragrance Library - This year, for Fragrance Foundation UK's National Fragrance Week, the retailer opened a pop-up for four days. The event featured socially sharable immersive experiences and the opportunity to discover new fragrances before anyone else. Exploring the aisles of The Fragrance Library, visitors stepped into fragrance stories, exploring and experiencing scents from nineteen brands.
Best Influencer Campaign: Recognizes a standout campaign that effectively leverages influencer partnerships to drive brand awareness, engagement, and measurable impact.
Cover FX Hickey Magic Campaign - Hickeys aren’t usually something people flaunt, but Cover FX put them front and center with its viral Hickey Magic campaign, launched on February 15, 2024, anticipating consumers’ desire to conceal evidence of a Valentine’s Day rendezvous.
K18 Biomimetic Hairscience Inner-Strength Campaign - Professional gymnast Simone Biles joined the haircare brand as a brand ambassador and frontwoman of the inner-strength campaign. She showcased how the impossible is made possible with her elevated hair routine that promotes self-expression without sacrificing hair health.
MAC Cosmetics National Lipstick Day - Recognizing the rise of the “lip combo” trend among Gen Z, MAC leveraged the power of social influence by teaming up with model-musician Gabbriette, actress-singer Ryan Destiny, and beauty influencer Karen Gonzalez. Each influencer curated a custom MAC lip combo featuring their must-have lipstick, liner, and gloss—products that reflected their unique aesthetic while celebrating MAC’s lip authority.
Amika x Song Candy Media (SCM) - To connect with millennial and Gen X women, SCM strategically partnered Amika with the queen of volume herself—Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi—known for her signature “pouf” hairstyle. Her involvement brought instant nostalgia and authenticity to the campaign, establishing a connection with fans of her 2000s-era look. Polizzi was already a fan of Amika, making her partnership with the brand a natural fit for her audience.
Kosas - The brand headed to Hawaii with an incredible group of women to immerse them in its mission: Partnering with Vogue on a photoshoot in Hawaii to capture that feeling in each woman that was featured in a Vogue print advertorial and amplified with a 360-degree campaign, including organic social media and community pop-up activations to bring offline and online worlds together.
Best Product Launch Campaign: Recognizes design, content, strategy, and execution tied to a product launch; can be a new-to-market brand or relaunch.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Lift & Flex Hydrating Concealer - A multisensory, wellness-driven activation that bridged beauty and self-care was designed to showcase the concealer’s skin-loving ingredients, weightless flexibility, and long-lasting performance.The campaign immersed consumers in an experience that embodied the product’s benefits.
Dr. Squatch Body Wash - This was a culturally resonant campaign that educated men on the benefits of natural grooming while making a splash in pop culture. The brand partnered with actress and producer Sydney Sweeney, transforming her into a "Body Wash Genie."The campaign unfolded through a series of cinematic videos, featuring Sweeney granting grooming wishes and calling on guys to upgrade their shower routines.
MAC Cosmetics Nudes Collection - The I Only Wear MAC campaign featured a series of “caught on camera” images of outspoken cultural icons including Martha Stewart, Julia Fox, Odell Beckham Jr., Beabadoobee, and Tiffany “New York” Pollard. This highly disruptive global campaign invited everyone to strip it down and show it off with the new MAC Nudes Collection.
Madison Reed ColorWonder Demi-Permanent Hair Color - The brand crafted a campaign to make an impact and reach the Gen-Z audience in an empowering way. Through a long-term partnership with UConn Women’s Basketball and NIL deals with its star players, Madison Reed launched the Team ColorWonder campaign with Brand Ambassadors Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, along with Ice Brady and Morgan Cheli.
SpaceNK Advent Calendar: The campaign was a nearly three-month-long initiative designed to capitalize on growing interest in the product. On launch day, a calendar sold every eight seconds, and the demand was sustained, leading to the calendar selling out seven weeks ahead of schedule.
Best New Category Launch: Recognizes design, content, strategy, and execution tied to a new product category launch.
Bubble Skincare Tell All Juicy Secret Lip Balm - The concept behind the launch was inspired by 10,000+ ambassador requests, making it one of the most highly demanded products in Bubble’s history. Tell All is more than just lip care—it’s a lifestyle accessory. Featuring a customizable keychain design with interchangeable charms, this product transformed a daily essential into a statement piece, perfectly capturing Bubble’s bold, consumer-first ethos.
Fine’ry Masculine Fragrance Collection - The strategic placement of this new collection in the men’s grooming aisle at Target ensures ease of access for consumers. This move reflects the brand’s dedication to expanding its reach and connecting with new audiences, particularly those who may not have felt seen in the mass market fragrance space before.
Olaplex Pro Scalp Rebalancing Concentrate -The first treatment of its kind to provide immediate hydration—making the scalp 5X more hydrated instantly—is dermatologist-tested, ensuring safety for all scalp types, including sensitive skin.
Patrick Ta Beauty Major Skin Hydra-Luxe Luminous Skin Perfecting Foundation - The campaign supporting the product was a disruptive, multichannel activation. From influencer suites in NYC and LA, Major Skin became the complexion product of the moment. The launch further cemented its glow-enhancing abilities at NYFW, where Ta curated the Monse show. This wasn’t just another foundation launch; it was a redefinition of modern complexion beauty backed by years of Ta’s first-hand experience.
Versed Makeup: A premium offering at an accessible price point the launch merged the benefits of skincare with the performance of traditional makeup and the luxe look and feel of prestige brands. The consumer, retail, content creator, and earned media response exceeded expectations.
Best Community Engagement: Recognizes the building, nurturing, and activating communities attached to brands or businesses.
Beekman 1802 Kindness Krew - This is an ambassador program to spread kindness in the social space. With over 1,500 Kindness Challenges completed, members are actively spreading kindness in creative ways.
Divi - In 2024, Divi put its community at the center with more than 10 intentional activations designed to foster connection, celebrate customer stories, and create unforgettable experiences.
Vegamour Club Amour - This is an invite-only network for top brand fans. These are not influencers—they’re evangelists who embody Vegamour’s ethos. Members receive early access to launches, product testing opportunities, exclusive events, merch, and direct communication with the team.
Laura Geller Beauty Own Your Age - While many companies chase Gen Alpha and Gen Z, Laura Geller Beauty remains dedicated to women 40+. The brand exclusively spotlights mature women in all marketing initiatives celebrating the power, complexity, and undeniable beauty that comes with age.
Jolie Skin Co - In less than a year, the brand built a community of over 2,500 salons in the US that are currently retailing and recommending Jolie filtered showerheads to their clients as "step zero" in their haircare routine.
Best Virtual Activation: Recognizes unique concept or initiative and its execution, creating new immersive experiences, services, and products in the metaverse/Web3 or gaming platform.
Essence Cosmetics Kingdom of Essentia - This is the brand's second entry into the metaverse, bringing beauty and gaming together in an immersive Roblox experience designed to engage, entertain, and inspire Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences in a space where they naturally connect, play, and express themselves. Set in a vibrant, fantasy-inspired universe, Kingdom of Essentia invites players to embark on quests and customize their avatars with free and exclusive essence cosmetics-inspired UGC items. The game seamlessly merges digital self-expression with the brand’s fun and fearless DNA, reinforcing its essence as a pioneer in beauty-meets-gaming activations. With over 4.4 million players (and an 11 minutes play time session on average) since launch, Kingdom of Essentia is not just a game—it’s an interactive brand universe that transforms how young audiences experience beauty in the digital age.
Fine'ry-verse - The fragrance adventure game on Roblox marked the first mass-market fragrance brand to enter the gaming world, engaging a new generation of fragrance enthusiasts, particularly Gen Alpha. This immersive environment allowed users to learn about Fine’ry’s scents while engaging with the brand in innovative ways, such as using custom emotes and capturing memorable moments with friends. The game invited users to express their individuality and creativity in a fun and dynamic setting, where fragrance discovery met gaming.
Sol de Janeiro Universe on Roblox - Collaborating with Roblox and creative agency, Sawhorse Productions LA, the result was an interactive environment that allowed participants to immerse themselves in Rio de Janeiro virtually. Users could connect while learning more about the brand’s products, reflecting the core values of community, positivity, and self-expression. A standout feature of the activation was the Compliment Wheel where users exchanged compliments, creating an uplifting and encouraging atmosphere. Those who accepted a compliment saw their avatar glow, symbolizing the boost in confidence. This interactive element resulted in over 5.1 million compliments exchanged, fostering a supportive virtual space.
Best Content Activation: Honors a creative and impactful activation that effectively brings content to life, driving audience engagement, brand awareness, and memorable consumer experiences across platforms.
Joya Studio x A24 - To promote the highly anticipated thriller Heretic, Joya set out to deliver an innovative and immersive experience within a 360-degree launch and communication strategy. The most significant element was a surprise, one-night-only, multisensory screening that reimagined “Smell-O-Vision” as precise, tense, and purposeful—bringing the concept into the modern era.
Kenvue, OGX OG Who? OGX Campaign - The brand challenged itself not just to reenter the haircare chat, but to ensure people left the conversation singing its name—literally. Ditching the traditional brand playbook and leaning into the brand’s inherent belief in self-expression, OGX centered its campaign on a content activation at the cross section of music and culture. As an “OG” in hair repair, OGX plotted a thumb-stopping campaign that would turn its weak brand recognition into a rallying cry. Powered and co-written by Demi Lovato, the OGX Anthem spoke to the fun that comes from expressing oneself through hair.
Laura Geller Beauty 2024 Own Your Age Campaign - The brand teamed up with comedian Leanne Morgan on a video that debuted on April 9, National Mature Women’s Day (NMWD), an annual event created by the brand in 2022 that offers consumers a discount equal to their age. By casting Morgan, the brand used comedy to confront societal standards of beauty and spread its message to the comedian’s growing fanbase.
Maude x Stella McCartney - The campaign integrated Maude into the cultural conversation around fashion, empowerment, and intimacy by aligning with Stella McCartney’s Laptop to Lapdance collection at Paris Fashion Week Winter 2025. The activation aimed to increase brand visibility, reinforce Maude’s mission of normalizing intimacy, and create a buzzworthy moment merging self-care with high fashion. This strategic integration positioned Maude at the intersection of fashion, design, and intimacy, reinforcing its role in modern self-care.
SpaceNK Beauty Advent Calendar - The launch is one of the most important commercial and brand-building moments of the year, representing a huge opportunity for new customer acquisition and amplifying brand awareness. This year, the campaign was a nearly three-month-long initiative designed to capitalize on growing interest in the product and drive record-breaking customer acquisition for SpaceNK. Once early access opened to the waitlist, sales performance exceeded all expectations. On launch day, a calendar sold every eight seconds, leading to the calendar selling out seven weeks ahead of schedule.
Best Performance Marketing Campaign: Recognizes strategy, initiative/activation, and execution tied to a performance marketing campaign.
1r Agency Maison Louis Marie 2004 BFCM - The campaign for Maison Louis Marie combined two powerful strategies with best-in-class creative to maximize ROI. "Test-Scale-Kill," a rigorous testing method from pre-sale through the end of the sale, and "Prospect-Retarget-Convert" budget allocation began with prospecting (October–November), building audiences through broad-reach campaigns. When Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) kicked off, it aggressively shifted spend to retargeting and retention, capturing high-intent users and driving efficient conversions. By combining real-time optimizations with a phased funnel strategy, record-setting results were achieveed across key metrics.
Bliss - The Elder Millennial campaign, featuring comedian Iliza Shlesinger, redefines skincare by reconnecting with elder millennials and Gen X—two demographics often overlooked in today’s Gen Alpha-driven beauty landscape. Using humor and nostalgia, Bliss cuts through the noise of overpriced, youth-focused products, championing effective, no-fuss skincare solutions for adults. Strategically amplified across TV, social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), Bliss’ website, and its Amazon storefront, the campaign ensured maximum reach and engagement. To drive conversions, Bliss introduced the Elder Millennial Skincare Kit and a limited-time '90s-inspired pricing event on Amazon (January 28–February 11), offering the kit for $30—50% off—as a nostalgic nod to the brand’s founding in 1996.
Sol de Janeiro Holiday 2024 by Good Moose - 2024 brought a new set of challenges. The overlap of a high-stakes election year with the rapid rise of beauty in social commerce, particularly on TikTok Shop, signaled a major shift in consumer behavior and attention. After three strong holiday seasons, working with Sol de Janeiro, replicating the past wouldn’t be enough. Good Moose was designed with two key objectives: to build upper-funnel brand awareness and expand its retargeting pool ahead of Cyber Week. The goal was to maximize revenue capture during this critical retail moment. By investing early in reach and ad recall, it set the stage for more efficient, performance-driven retargeting later in the season, ultimately enabling the brand to scale investment while maintaining record-level returns.
Stella Rising for Jane Iredale - With a historically loyal base of older customers, the brand sought to remain relevant and grow by expanding its reach to younger demographics. A seamless, high-converting e-commerce journey was created with content playing a central role, using trusted voices to introduce products and educate users in an authentic, platform-native way. This approach replicated the intimacy and trust of influencer content in a traditionally static digital space, enhancing conversion without relying solely on upper-funnel awareness. On the media side, they tested and optimized aggressively—discovering that influencer content not only outperformed branded content in mid-funnel engagement, but also in last-click conversions.
Best Loyalty Program: Honors a standout loyalty program that drives customer engagement, brand loyalty, and repeat business through innovative rewards and experiences.
Ulta Beauty Rewards - The retailer's loyalty program with 44.6 million members, is the largest in the beauty category—and a key driver of success. With 95% of sales attributed to loyalty members, it has built an unmatched community that fuels engagement, deepens emotional connections, and powers business growth.
SpaceNK NDULGE - As an omnichannel brick-and-mortar as well as online business, the loyalty program has been the lynchpin for their database growth strategy across the channels. NDULGE membership drives higher rates of spend, frequency, and retention at an individual customer level compared to nonmembers.
Best Use of Social Media: Recognizes strategy, initiative/activation, content creation and execution tied to the use of social media.
Emi Jay Halo Hair Oil Girls’ Night Out - Emi Jay empowered creators to capture organic moments on a night out. The content-ready care package included Halo Hair Oil, holiday collection pieces, exclusive EJ branded items designed for social content capture, and a gift card to enjoy their evening. Through careful curation of creators and the development of trusted, strong relationships, this low-lift approach resulted in high-quality UGC that felt natural, resonating with audiences and reinforcing Emi Jay as a go-to brand for on-the-go good hair.
