E.l.f., Wendy's, Gap Bet on Original Music for Gen Z — SkimNews
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- E.l.f. Beauty released its second original album "Mirror Mix" featuring seven rising artists, streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and Roblox, with Chief Integrated Marketing Officer Patrick O'Keefe saying the goal is to "be top of mind with our community"
- E.l.f. received $50 million in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's "liberation day" tariffs and a federal judge ordered the funds returned, with CEO Tarang Amin saying the company will "fully reinvest that money" in pricing and marketing
- Gap announced a multiyear partnership with boy band Just Your Type under its new "fashiontainment" platform overseen by newly appointed Chief Entertainment Officer Pam Kaufman, marking the retailer's first collaboration of its kind
- Wendy's released a humor-driven emo album titled "Songs to Listen to in a Wendy's Parking Lot," with its lead song surpassing 450,000 Spotify streams and gaining hundreds of thousands of likes on Instagram
- E.l.f. reported unaided awareness tripled to 45% from 13% over five years, reinvested more than 20% of fiscal Q1 net sales in marketing and digital, and posted its 30th consecutive quarter of growth with doubled profits
- A United Talent Agency report found 68% of Gen Z consumers are more likely to buy from brands they perceive as culturally relevant, while 87% think favorably of such brands
Why it matters: E.l.f.'s entertainment-first strategy delivered concrete results: unaided awareness tripled to 45% over five years, profits doubled, and the company logged 30 consecutive growth quarters. Gap, which closed roughly 2,000 stores and shed $3.5 billion in annual sales between 2001 and 2021, and fast-food rival Wendy's are now copying the playbook, signaling that original music and entertainment IP have shifted from marketing experiment to baseline retail strategy aimed at Gen Z.
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