When one thinks of the Super Bowl, many products come to mind — foam fingers, beer, face paint, nachos, BarcaLoungers — but beauty products aren’t necessarily one of them. Still, female viewership of the NFL is on the rise (and it’s not all just the Taylor Swift halo effect) — the 2024 Super Bowl brought a record-breaking 58.8 million female viewers who made up 47.5% of the total audience.
Given that, it makes sense that a brand like E.l.f. Beauty, which has made a name for itself not just with its accessible beauty products but also its savvy marketing, decided that Super Bowl LVII was the moment for a big play. It did just that with its Judge Beauty ad spot, which featured legendary TV jurist Judge Judy and talent from the law series Suits hearing the cases of people charged with the crime of paying too much for beauty. The sentence? E.l.f. products, of course.
“Our vision was to create a campy and engaging ad that tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of courtroom TV shows,” explained E.l.f. Chief Digital Officer Ekta Chopra at a recent event. “The theme of the ad was, ‘It’s a crime to overpay,’ and our goal was to go far beyond just one 30-second spot at the Super Bowl.”
To extend the momentum of the campaign beyond that brief, albeit powerful, Super Sunday moment, E.l.f. turned to one of advertising’s most powerful new channels — connected TV (CTV). In partnership with its marketing agency Tinuiti, the company launched a follow-up streaming campaign with a number of major platforms, including Roku, which boasts 120 million daily viewers.
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As one might expect of this marketing powerhouse, the Roku streaming campaign was a huge success for E.l.f., resulting in a double-digit increase in message association and more click-throughs than its other channel investments.
E.l.f. and Roku gave Retail TouchPoints an inside look at the campaign, which offers a playbook for other brands on how to drive measurable brand engagement with TV audiences.
Aiming for Overtime
CTV is particularly popular with younger audiences, with six out of 10 viewers aged 18 to 29 using streaming services to watch television, according to the Pew Research Center. That access to its target demographic, combined with enhanced technical capabilities, made CTV and Roku the perfect fit for E.l.f. as it looked to keep the Big Game buzz going well after Super Sunday.
“To authentically engage with our customers, we need to be present where they choose to spend their time,” said Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer of E.l.f. Beauty in a new case study. “We believed Roku’s unique blend of native streaming formats could extend the reach and performance of our Judge Beauty campaign.”
The multi-faceted Roku campaign including a native Marquee ad on Roku’s home screen and a billboard placement in the platform’s Roku City screensaver. Clicking on either ad led viewers to a Brand Showcase featuring E.l.f. beauty products, with an option to visit the brand’s website via a QR code.
Results so Good, They’re Criminal
Even Judge Judy would struggle to find fault with the results of E.l.f.’s Roku campaign. Combined, the home screen placement, Roku City billboard and Brand Showcase garnered 41 million impressions. That reach translated into a 37% increase in message association, 12X higher than Roku’s beauty category benchmarks.
Overall, E.l.f. saw a 1.03% click-through rate on its home screen and Roku City screensaver ads, and the campaign drove 66,000 visits to the brand’s website by those who saw the Brand Showcase, E.l.f. reported.
“Viewers are more receptive to advertising when it’s seamlessly integrated into their experience and aligns with their interests,” said TaraLynn Marinho, Senior Manager of DTC Brands and Performance Marketing at Roku in the case study. “Roku’s native ad solutions enable our partners to deliver their messages in a way that feels organic, enhancing the streaming experience without being intrusive.”
