e.l.f Beauty: Analyzing “Change the Board Game” Campaign

✦ Role: Market Researcher (Student Project)
Tools: Statista, Google Trends, Google Forms, Social Platforms
Goal: To evaluate how brand activism impacts perception and consumer loyalty.

First, what problem am I trying to solve?

e.l.f. Beauty launched the “Change the Board Game” campaign to advocate for inclusive leadership. The question was whether the message was effectively reaching its intended audiences and how the campaign was impacting brand perception in real time.

Campaign Context:

🔍How I Measured Campaign Awareness. See the survey➔

Platform: Google Forms

Launch: April 1, 2025 - Ended April 14th, 2025

Responses collected: 20 by April 14

Questions: 10 total

Focus Areas:
• Brand perception
• Message authenticity
• Campaign recall
• Brand alignment
• Demographics

🧠 My Process:

  1. I designed a survey to assess overall awareness of the campaign:
    I started by designing a survey to assess overall awareness of the campaign and e.l.f.’s brand perception. I prioritized this step early on, knowing it would take time to collect meaningful responses.

  2. Next, I conducted a media audit across e.l.f.'s Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. I focused my attention on comments, brand mentions, shares, and user-generated content. This helped me track how consumers were responding to the brand and the campaign in real time.

  3. I discovered a surprising insight 💡 The campaign wasn’t just speaking to everyday makeup users. It was subtly targeting corporate leaders. I realized these high-performing individuals care about innovation, performance, and legacy, which reshaped how I interpreted the campaign’s message and media choices.

  4. I assessed the effectiveness of their use of social media, billboards, and their website. In doing so, I could see how each channel resonated with pure makeup consumers versus corporate stakeholders.

  5. Finally, I concluded my research by providing recommendations to support the campaign’s three year goal. This included product integration, a microsite with progress updates, and strategies to maintain awareness among non-consumers.

Audience Filtering

I identified that the campaign’s placements in high-traffic, corporate areas like the Financial District were intentional. It signaled a clear effort to reach finance, law, and leadership professionals likely to resonate with e.l.f.'s progressive messaging.

💡Out-of-Home Media to Target Corporate Leaders

The Good

  • Perception of e.l.f: Socially responsible, earnest, leader.

  • The campaign included billboard advertising in New York City, with placements around the Financial District, Fulton Street Station, Broad & Wall Street, and The Oculus was bold and ingenius to target corporate leadership.

Contexual Relevance

Through my analysis, I saw how proximity to financial landmarks (like Wall Street and Broad Street) reinforced the brand’s credibility and aligned visually and thematically with its tone.

TAKEAWAYS

📌What I Learned:

📌What’s Next:

The Bad

  • 80% of survey respondents had not heard of the campaign.

  • While featuring Billie Jean King was a strong choice, it failed to connect with the public since many might not have been familiar with her story.

  • The camapign fails to align with consumers’ immediate needs or the brand’s everyday value.

Foot Traffic & Potential Online Traffic

I recognized that placing ads in locations like Fulton Street Station and The Oculus tapped into foot traffic and increased the chance for organic reach (social sharing, earned media) without extra spend.

The Ugly

Low YouTube engagment despite 15M+ followers across platforms. Average: 7K–11K views per video.

Risks being seen as jumping on a trend, rather than leading a movement

This project showed me how market research combines both data and observation. Through surveys, I uncovered audience perceptions, while the media audit revealed how e.l.f. strategically reached two unlikely yet important groups: pure makeup consumers and corporate professionals. It taught me to look beyond the obvious and consider how placement and messaging work together to target different segments.

Moving forward, I plan to combine both qualitative and quantitative research methods to uncover clearer insights about audience behaviors and preferences. I’m also eager to learn and use more research tools and techniques.