Beauty subscription brand Ipsy has launched a new partnership with Khloé Kardashian in an appeal to its core millennial base.
Announced as Ipsy’s new brand partner on Monday, Kardashian has signed on for a 1-year deal with the beauty company that will include social promotions focused mainly on Instagram. Her debut social campaign with the brand will take place next Thursday on its IGTV account, where she will be appearing with TikTok star Addison Rae in a “make-off” using the “tiny hands” trend. Several brands in Ipsy’s monthly Glam Bag beauty subscription will be featured, including Rae’s newly launched Item Beauty line created with Ipsy’s incubator, Madeby Collective.
“Khloé really resonates with our core demo,” said Jenna Habayeb, Ipsy chief brand officer. “Our core demo has spoken about how they really like her and how she she fits [the brand] in any of the research and surveys that we’ve done.”
The campaign’s make-off “battle” will feature #TeamAddison and #TeamKoko hashtags, with other celebrities also set up to post about it in order to generate engagement among each star’s unique fan base. Users can vote on each hashtag for the chance to win a 1-year Ipsy subscription, apparel from Kardashian’s Good American brand and Item Beauty products.
The company has been expanding beyond its core demographic this year through a focus on Gen-Z TikTok influencers including Addison Rae. “We have a very large community of over 25 million people, and so we want to make sure that we’re hitting different demographics,” said Habayeb, who noted that millennials make up a “larger subset” of Ipsy customers.
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The Kardashians are no strangers to subscription boxes — both Kylie and Kim have done promotions for subscription box service Boxycharm.
The campaign featuring Kardashian will be teased on TikTok, but the main video will live on IGTV.
“Our core demographic is also highly engaged on Instagram,” said Habayeb. “We wanted to focus on a channel and a platform that our audience is spending a lot of time in, and obviously Khloé really hits that audience.” Kardashian has 121 million Instagram followers, and only 1 million on TikTok. Habayeb also noted that Ipsy is working with Instagram on a way to incorporate its unique quiz-based commerce format into Instagram’s shopping features, including its newly introduced Live Shopping.
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TikTok, meanwhile, “gives us some liberties to reach a younger demo. Gen Z is obviously is heavily prevalent on TikTok, but there are a lot of millennials on TikTok, too,” she said. “We have a lot more opportunity to educate and engage with our community directly on Instagram, whereas TikTok is more about entertainment, delight and kind of hitting on some really fun beauty trends.”
Regarding the ongoing saga of whether TikTok will be banned from the U.S. that saw several new developments over the past 72 hours, Habayeb said it would be a “huge bummer” if TikTok is banned, but Ipsy is continuing with its plans for the platform.
“TikTok has been a focus for us and we’re going to continue down the path with TikTok,” said Habayeb. “If things ultimately come to a halt with TikTok, we definitely are able to pivot some of our strategies, our creators, our content to other places.”
