Ulta Beauty’s fiscal year is off to a strong start, with Q1 net sales up 11.1% to $3.2 billion and broad-based growth across all channels and major categories, despite persistent economic pressure on consumers, according to the company. Executives have attributed the success in part to its marketing.
Leading the way is Kelly Mahoney, who was recently named one of the world’s most influential CMOs by Forbes. Mahoney was appointed chief marketer last year after holding key marketing roles since joining Ulta in 2015 and has quickly ramped up efforts and partnerships that build the brand and contribute to growth.
“The best marketing combines bold creativity with data, technology and cultural relevance to create meaningful relationships with guests that drive long-term loyalty,” Mahoney told sister publication Marketing Dive over email. “At Ulta Beauty, that means bringing together first-party insights, personalization, social, creators, media, PR and brand storytelling to create connected experiences that inspire discovery, strengthen emotional connections, and deliver measurable business results.”
Marketing Dive connected with Mahoney about Ulta’s cultural marketing efforts, channels including retail media and TikTok Shop, the retailer’s experiential strategy and more.
Editor’s note: The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: How does the “Supergirl” collaboration speak to your marketing strategy?
KELLY MAHONEY: Our partnership with DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures around “Supergirl” is rooted in a shared belief that beauty is about confidence, self-expression and embracing what makes you unique. Through immersive in-store experiences, exclusive product collaborations, digital content and a campaign featuring Milly Alcock, we’re inviting guests to create their own version of “rebel girl beauty.”
More broadly, this reflects how we think about our marketing strategy. “Beauty Happens Here” is our creative North Star. It reflects our belief that beauty happens every day, in both the quiet rituals and the bold moments of self-expression, and it guides how we connect with guests across culture, commerce and community.
We think about cultural relevance as a long-term strategy – not a series of one-off moments – with every partnership designed to inspire discovery, build community and strengthen our relationship with guests.
What is your approach to building the brands of both Ulta Beauty and your partners?
The two objectives are deeply connected. Every experience that strengthens our relationship with guests also creates value for the brands we partner with. Our role is to bring together discovery, inspiration and trusted guidance in ways that create value for everyone in our ecosystem.
We build the Ulta Beauty brand by earning relevance every day – through personalized experiences, authentic participation in culture and helping guests discover products, brands and services that are right for them.
For our brand partners, we go beyond shelf space. With the scale of Ulta Beauty Rewards, deep first-party insights, UB Media and our omnichannel ecosystem, we help brands connect with highly engaged beauty and wellness enthusiasts in more personalized, measurable and meaningful ways.
How are you leveraging first-party data from loyalty to drive UB Media as the retail media space evolves?
Our Ulta Beauty Rewards program and first-party data allow us to deliver more relevant, personalized experiences for both guests and brand partners. With nearly 47 million members representing approximately 95% of company sales, our loyalty program is the foundation of that relationship, helping us understand what our guests love, how they shop and how they want to engage.
At the center of this is our proprietary Beauty Graph, which learns from what guests browse, search, purchase and share to better understand their beauty and wellness journeys. Those insights help brands connect with highly engaged audiences at the right moment with messaging that resonates.
Through UB Media, we’re able to translate those insights into more targeted, measurable campaigns that drive discovery, consideration and conversion. Ultimately, our first-party data helps us to create a better experience for guests while enabling our brand partners to make smarter, more effective marketing investments.
Can you dig into how Ulta is approaching TikTok Shop as an acquisition channel and less of an e-commerce one?
We were the first specialty beauty retailer in the U.S. to launch on TikTok Shop because we see it as much more than another e-commerce channel. It’s where beauty discovery is already happening, making it easier for guests to move seamlessly from inspiration to purchase while allowing us to reach new audiences in authentic, platform-native ways.
Our focus is on guest acquisition and brand building. TikTok Shop creates an opportunity to introduce new-to-Ulta Beauty shoppers to our ecosystem through creator-led storytelling, education and discovery. It’s complementary to our broader omnichannel strategy and extends the ways guests can engage with Ulta Beauty across digital and physical touchpoints.
It also creates new opportunities for our brand partners. Through curated assortments, exclusive bundles, creator collaborations and TikTok-first moments, we’re helping brands build awareness, drive discovery and trial and connect with consumers in ways that feel native to how beauty is experienced today.
How are you leveraging creators with Ulta Beauty Collective?
Creators play an increasingly important role in how people discover beauty today, but what matters most is trust. Our guests are looking to creators for authentic inspiration, education and product recommendations, so we’ve built the Ulta Beauty Collective as a curated, year-long partnership model with hand-selected creators who genuinely embody Ulta Beauty’s brand values and the diverse beauty journeys of our guests.
We think about creators as an extension of the Ulta Beauty experience. Together with Ulta Beauties – our associate ambassador program – and our broader creator partnerships, they help bridge discovery and trust. A guest might discover a product through a creator on social, then visit one of our stores to explore it with one of our associates. That connected experience helps us meet guests wherever they are in their beauty and wellness journey while creating more authentic, meaningful connections with our brand.
How do you see experiential efforts, like Ulta Beauty World and the new store, as part of the marketing flywheel?
Beauty discovery is highly personal and constantly evolving, so we look to our ecosystem – whether that’s via social, digital, AI, or in-store – to personalize the way our guests explore and shop for beauty and wellness. Last year alone we held over 100,000 in-store events, ranging from brand activations and birthday parties to salon services, in addition to large-scale immersive experiences like Ulta Beauty World, because we know the power of in-person touchpoints in deepening our connection with beauty enthusiasts.
Our new Times Square flagship store will be rooted in immersive event activations that will elevate our storytelling and connections with our guests even further. These personalized touchpoints authentically set Ulta Beauty up as the ultimate beauty destination, organically creating moments for community, UGC content and brand loyalty.
Brands like e.l.f. have had great success tapping into women’s sports. Where is the opportunity for you with the Ulta Beauty Roster?
It’s no surprise that beauty brands have been aggressively expanding into women’s sports and moving beyond traditional endorsements, because these partnerships champion high performance, confidence, resilience and individuality.
We saw an opportunity to help drive change through our Ulta Beauty Roster initiative, featuring six standout athletes across established and emerging sports. These athletes are redefining what it means to compete by sharing the routines, rituals and moments that help them feel their best – on and off the field of play, while also using their influence to make a positive impact in their communities.
The need is real. Research shows that more than one million girls who identified as “sporty” in elementary school disengage from sports during their teenage years. That’s why our goal extends beyond representation – it’s about helping more girls stay in the game by increasing visibility, creating opportunities and investing in the future of women’s sports.
