{"id":22044,"date":"2025-03-10T12:48:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22044"},"modified":"2025-03-10T12:48:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:48:49","slug":"ulta-beautys-new-cmo-on-balancing-cultural-pizzazz-with-socially-minded-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22044","title":{"rendered":"Ulta Beauty\u2019s new CMO on balancing cultural pizzazz with socially minded initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">Ulta Beauty began the year with a Golden Globes sponsorship. Then, it showed up at the Super Bowl. Now, the pop culture train is still chugging, and the brand is also keeping an eye trained on DEI initiatives and the effect of tariffs, all with a new marketer at the helm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">At the end of February, Kelly Mahoney, who has been with Ulta Beauty for the last decade, was promoted from interim CMO to CMO, succeeding Michelle Crossan-Matos, who left the beauty retailer in January. We spoke with Mahoney about how the brand is balancing its various marketing priorities in this next phase, and what it will take to pull it all off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cBeauty is a cultural force,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cAt the center of that is just where you show up, from a culture perspective. Because that\u2019s about relevance, and that\u2019s about making sure that you\u2019re able to live authentically in your purpose, where your customers and where your guests are.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 ekFpgi\">Courting culture<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">Right before Mahoney stepped into her official CMO shoes, but while she was still wearing her interim role, the Super Bowl happened\u2014famously a super casual event for brands!<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">Many brands show up to the major marketing moment with an ad spot, but this year, Ulta Beauty showed up on the ground and on social. That included sponsoring For The W, an event with the publishing brand Gallery Media Group and Chanen Johnson, the wife of New Orleans Saints wide receiver Juwan Johnson, that hosted women in sports. Beyond that, the brand partnered with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, to provide her glam for the big game, and it partnered with singer-songwriter SZA and her makeup artist to get the star ready for her halftime performance. Mahoney said choosing this route instead of an ad spot was aimed at optimizing an authentic social media connection with Ulta Beauty\u2019s audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cRelevance is one of those things where it\u2019s equity-building, and building your followers and seeing engagement in the posts that you\u2019re doing,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cThis was one of the most successful social and influencer campaigns that we\u2019ve ever done at Ulta Beauty in the sense that we saw the most impressions in such a short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">For Mahoney, who said she has roots in loyalty marketing, making connections with customers on social is essential to long-term success, especially around cultural events like the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cMaybe we\u2019re starting our relationship for the first time, and it\u2019s going to pay out in the long term because we just created a very authentic, two-way conversation in that moment that made somebody feel like Ulta Beauty is very relevant, and Ulta Beauty is showing up in a powerful way in a very important moment in time,\u201d Mahoney said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"style__InlineSubscribeWrapper-sc-9efdcdad-1 iwvSXp inline-subscribe\">\n<div id=\"inline-subscribe\" class=\"style__RoundedContainer-sc-59d9816-0 hEwJGY\">\n<h5 class=\"inline-subscribe\">Get marketing news you&#8217;ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n<p class=\"inline-subscribe\">Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">Social isn\u2019t everything in the cultural marketing sphere, though. For the Golden Globes, the brand took a digital sponsorship approach, which was centered on total impressions and showing up as a sponsor of the awards show, Mahoney said. While the brand doesn\u2019t appear at every awards show, the awards circuit is a natural fit since many beauty brands sold in Ulta Beauty stores are founded by celebrities who show up at these events, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cIt\u2019s very relevant for us to show up in a space where [our partners] might be in such an authentic way as a show of support to not only grow our business, of course, but to grow their business and to be supportive of them as well,\u201d Mahoney said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 ekFpgi\">Socially and politically minded<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">Ulta Beauty has more cultural moments up its sleeve, but the beauty brand is also prioritizing its customers and community by reaffirming its commitment to DEI initiatives in a moment when many other retailers, including Target, Amazon, and Walmart, are stepping back. In February, Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman released a statement to Beauty Independent affirming the company\u2019s ongoing support for DEI. Mahoney shared that same assurance with us, noting that the brand \u201calways has been about accessibility and inclusivity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cIt is a part of who we are,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cDoing anything differently is almost impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">DEI efforts at Ulta Beauty are largely focused on how the brand shows up in the marketplace, Mahoney said. From community-focused messaging to accessible locations to representative store associates, Mahoney said the brand\u2019s approach to diversity is more of an \u201cethos or DNA, rather than a specific program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">At the same time, Mahoney is also paying attention to the impact of tariffs, dropping consumer confidence, and economic uncertainty, and is focused on ways to assure Ulta Beauty\u2019s customers that the brand will remain an accessible part of their lives through details like its loyalty program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-31cb6c8c-8 eOGsFs\">\u201cEverybody that\u2019s in business right now should probably be tuning in to what\u2019s happening with tariffs,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cWe are on top of that, and we are partnering with our all of our partners in this space, whether they\u2019re the brand partners that are doing a lot of the manufacturing, as well as our own partners for the fixtures and things that we have in our stores, to ensure that at the end of the day, we mitigate any risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingbrew.com\/stories\/2025\/03\/10\/ulta-cmo-kelly-mahoney-golden-globes-super-bowl-tariffs-dei?utm_source=&#038;utm_medium=syndication&#038;utm_campaign=feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ulta Beauty began the year with a Golden Globes sponsorship. Then, it showed up at the Super Bowl. Now, the pop culture train is still chugging, and the brand is also keeping an eye trained on DEI initiatives and the effect of tariffs, all with a new marketer at the helm. At the end of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ulta Beauty\u2019s new CMO on balancing cultural pizzazz with socially minded initiatives | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ulta Beauty began the year with a Golden Globes sponsorship. Then, it showed up at the Super Bowl. 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