E.l.f looks to micro-influencers over celebrities for campaigns

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Mar 19, 2017

Instead of looking to the usual selection of celebrities to promote the brand's newest product offerings, E.l.f Cosmetics took an unusual approach to its marketing, opting instead to use a network of micro-influencers to relate to customers.

E.l.f Cosmetics (the name stands for Eyes, Lips, Face) has looked to a team of 50 micro-influencers via its “Beautyscape” program to help increase brand engagement. Each micro-influencer was chosen because of their strong engagement with and their enthusiasm for the brand. The average Instagram following of these micro-influencers is 1500.

Since bringing on these influencers, E.l.f has seen a 25% increase of followers on its social platforms

Amy Cotteleer, founder of A2G, an experiential agency helped E.l.f launch this program, found that micro-influencers have more engagement than more followed influencers: micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 8%, while influencers with around a million followers only have a 1.7% engagement rate with their audience

E.l.f found the key to its influencer program was not to just give influencers free product and compensation, but to promote creativity. The 50 chosen micro-influencers were flown to San Francisco and given the opportunity to weigh in on new products and work with E.l.f make-up artists. The micro-influencers were then asked to post photos of the looks they've come up with using E.l.f products.