Every beauty enthusiast’s morning must-haves are coffee in their veins and glam on their face. So we combined two of Gen Z’s favorite brands and created a new way to power up their get-up-and-go daily routine. Yes, it was time to wake up your makeup.

e.l.f. and Dunkin’ are two brands known for disruption in their respective categories so it made sense that they partnered to make massive waves, driving hype and brand equity.

Expectations were high so a product deserving of brand love had to be created and presented in a way that would maximize the hype, ideally manufacturing just the right amount of inventory to sell out. All of this while two brands with very different company cultures and work styles collaborated.

The primary KPI was earned media, and a secondary goal was rapid product sell-through.

Introducing, e.l.f. runs on Dunkin,’ The Wake Up and Makeup Collection. Coming in hot with coffee and donut glazed shades, shapes and scents. The collection featured instant classics, like the “Glazed for Days” Lip Gloss, and the “Strawberry Frosted” Donut-Shaped Face Sponge.

To launch such an innovative and unique collection, we needed to find an authentic influencer to make all the stars align. We enlisted Mikayla Nogueira–a lifetime super fan of both brands, GenZ’s go-to makeup guru, and lifelong Dunkin’ drinker. She’s a former Ulta Beauty employee, the exclusive retailer for this collection. She promoted the collaboration with authentic content across social media. She even hyped the collab in Ulta retailers with her Boston-thick accent.

People couldn’t stop talking about it. There truly is no better way to start your day than making a Dunkin’ run wearing your favorite e.l.f. makeup. Now that’s a brewtiful partnership.

e.l.f. and Dunkin’ both have cult followings who knew what they wanted and so did we - a collaboration between their favorite cosmetics brand and the coffee that runs through their veins.

With the campaign’s primary KPI as earned media and Gen Z as the target audience, anticipation and excitement had to be built on the platform Gen Z spends most of their time on - TikTok. The final ingredient? Invite e.l.f. and Dunkin’ superfan and TikTok superstar Mikayla Nogueira (with over 10 million followers) to headline the campaign.

For Mikayla, promoting the collaboration to her followers was a dream come true. Mikayla became the voice of Ulta, so as soon as you walked into the store, you would hear Mikayla, enthusiastically talking about the collaboration), producing a series of content for her TikTok channel and the collaboration received organic promotion from her across platforms!

The campaign needed a large amount of high quality, eye popping deliverables within an extremely tight timeline, and e.l.f. and Dunkin’ pulled out all the stops:

A limited-edition makeup collection was created with six Dunkin- inspired e.l.f. products.

Superfan and TikTok Superstar, Mikayla Nogueira, headlined the campaign. The partnership was made personal and meaningful for Mikayla and her followers by producing a “Wake Up & Make Up” series where Mikayla was surprised with an e.l.f. and Dunkin’-fied beauty room in her house and became the voice of the campaign streaming in Ultas nationwide.

Product-specific TikTok trend videos organically drove buzz and made headlines.

e.l.f. and Dunkin hosted a pop up in NYC with over 500 influencers, beauty editors, and consumers.

e.l.f. and Dunkin’ partnered with Ulta to launch products in store and online.

e.l.f. and Dunkin’ released a limited-edition e.l.f. Runs on Dunkin’ collection that sold out in 10 minutes!

This campaign was epic, achieving our very lofty ambitions.

On our primary KPI of earned media, we beat our prior records: 2.3 billion PR impressions IN THE FIRST DAY, and 5 billion in just a few weeks! The campaign was featured in ABC News, Allure and CNN among many many others.

On our secondary KPI of sell-through, we hit the exact sweet spot. We wanted to drive hype with a fast “selling out” message – The Vault of all e.l.f. X Dunkin’ products retailed at $75 - a high for e.l.f. X Dunkin’ - sold out in 10 MINUTES!!!!

MOST IMPORTANTLY of all, we surprised and delighted fans, earning hundreds of social videos praising the collection, and elevating both brands to even more iconic status.