e.l.f. Cosmetics meets their community where they are at and e.l.f. research showed 70% of our community play video games. Fearless when exploring new platforms to surprise and delight its community, e.l.f.'s expansion into gaming hit a catalyst when we launched e.l.f. UP! We created a game in Roblox that is about empowering people to start businesses based on passions and purpose. For e.l.f., Roblox was not just a flash in the pan branded moment, it has become one our fastest growing platforms that we continue to build upon.

In the last three years, workplaces have changed more than in the last 30 years combined – and creative, analytical thinking and coding will be the key skill sets from 2023. According to the World Economic Forum, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are increasingly seeking non-traditional career paths with 62% already being or intend to be an entrepreneur and over one third planning to launch a start-up or side-hustle.

The market and audience focus for e.l.f. is Gen Z and Gen Alpha and this branded program was created in response to the cultural nuances we had observed especially in the gaming space. e.l.f. listened to younger generations and their experiences and expectations of not only themselves but also how brands show up within gaming and more broadly in their real life as these two worlds are increasingly blending.

As e.l.f. does not delineate between geographic boundaries, we researched Gen Z and Gen Alpha and discovered universally common preferences for what they are motivated by as well as how brands can show up in their real life in an authentic way.

We discovered and validated some universal nuances:

-These generations will leverage tech to build financial impact.

-Their attitude towards money will be digital first.

-They’ll seek to work in the passion economy.

-They understand the sacrifices previous generations made.

e.l.f. listened to what was important to Gen Z and Gen Alpha and created a world within Roblox to empower young people to follow their dreams and be rewarded for it.

e.l.f. Is no stranger to the gaming world, it began with our Twitch platform. Insights revealed that females and non-binary individuals were under-represented in gaming partnerships and competitions, and that female gamers often didn’t reveal their gender when playing for fear of harassment.

Roblox was on our radar prior to launch but we wanted to do it right and avoid the pitfalls many others faced. When we dove deeper with Roblox, we discovered their community wanted us on the platform as much as we did - e.l.f. was one of the preferred brands and highly requested to join the platform.

The objective was to deliver an experience authentically. e.l.f. needed to offer a highly engaging fun and purpose driven experience for Gen Z and Gen Alpha in Roblox where there are 73 million daily active users.

In 2023, the World Economic Forum ‘Future of Jobs’ report revealed that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are increasingly drawn to entrepreneurship and non-traditional approaches to the workforce. 65% of Gen Z respondents stated they are currently entrepreneurs or intend to become ones, while one in three Gen Alphas expressed they will never pursue traditional corporate roles.

Using cultural input as inspiration the time was right for e.l.f. to dive in even deeper with Gen Z & Gen Alpha and to do this where they are and in their own time. Roblox is that world and the perfect home for e.l.f. UP!. Roblox is a global community and we decided to empower the next wave of young entrepreneurs. As e.l.f. stands for every eye, lip, face, paw and fin, we had to create an experience for every young entrepreneur out there to follow their dreams.

e.l.f. UP! was created as a game to show Gen Z and Gen Alpha how to build a side hustle. We created an e.l.f.ing magical world for the next generation of entrepreneurs and inspired by them.

We set key takeaways that e.l.f. UP! needed to deliver in Roblox:

-Self Expression via a unique entrepreneurial game that is your very own.

-Coding and the ability to learn how to code in our experience.

-Financial literacy in a way that is gamified, fun and exciting to learn about money, both digital and physical.

-Social awareness with a platform to share & learn about what is happening in the world.

e.l.f. UP! took a popular genre in Roblox, the tycoon game, and put an e.l.f. twist on it where young entrepreneurs can earn money in fantastical and magical ways by spending time in e.l.f.’s world.

e.l.f. UP! was designed to offer a multi-faceted experience based on three key pillars:

1. Fun, engaging, and continuously evolving gameplay.

2. The e.l.f. beautyverse, integrating real world brand initiatives into e.l.f. UP!.

3. Purpose-driven educational content, exemplified by weekly UGC drops.

e.l.f. UP! is available globally to all Roblox users and has surpassed 10 million players at record speed. What continues our growth is the constant implementation of pop-culture moments from trending holy grail products, to exclusive e.l.f. UP! partnerships with Reese Whiterspoon’s “Reese’s Book Club.” Additionally, partnering with Roblox to be the first brand to have its own animation pack and bringing back the highly requested in-game egg hunts, we have continued to engage with players outside of the targeted demographic.

In five months alone, e.l.f. UP! has won over community hearts with over 10 million visits and is bringing in over 1 million new visitors each month. We have witnessed 30 million unique impressions per month (best in class vs competitive set). e.l.f. UP! has a 96% positivity rating among fans, which puts e.l.f. UP! in the top 1% of branded experiences. And we have created over 1 million items of UCG that have been redeemed by our community in record time compared to other branded experiences in Roblox. e.l.f. UP! was the first game to giveaway 1 million UGC items and we were also the first brand to launch with a ‘global takeover’ sponsorship, which resulted in 1.1 million plays alone.

We're building dreams and showing a generation of aspiring entrepreneurs that anything is e.l.f.ing possible!

During our comprehensive research process, which involved extensive engagement with consumers and Roblox's user base, we gleaned insights that informed our strategy. It became evident that we needed to envision an even bigger, more dynamic, and evolving gameplay experience for e.l.f. UP! than initially anticipated.

To address the potential challenge of player fatigue, we integrated two new experiences per month into our roadmap. This adjustment necessitated a revision of our original production timelines.

Each month we update the game in three ways:

-Hygiene & technical (new start-up rooms, technical updates, and UGC)

-e.l.f. marketing moments

-Roblox-exclusive tentpole moments (big collaborations, exclusive content etc)