e.l.f. Cosmetics - Beauty Brand

The hashtag challenge that wrote the UGC playbook.

Overview

e.l.f. is an affordable beauty brand that became TikTok's favorite case study.

The problem it cracked

Competing for attention against beauty giants with far bigger ad budgets.

The playbook

Commission an original song (Eyes Lips Face), seed it with a handful of creators, then get out of the way. The custom sound plus an ultra-low-barrier format made joining effortless, and the challenge kept refilling itself with user videos.

The takeaway

Billions of hashtag views and millions of UGC clips. Still the most-cited branded challenge on TikTok: make participation easy, and the audience becomes the media plan.