The 2023 Holiday Campaign Hero Image

The 2023 Holiday Campaign

Digital Social

Ulta Beauty is on a mission to change what beauty means to the world. 

Ahead of the holiday season, the beauty destination came to The Foundry for help positioning itself as the go-to retailer for beauty and gifting essentials. The goal was to drive awareness and motivate consumers to shop at Ulta Beauty — no matter how they were planning to celebrate — through interactive, solution-driven custom content.

Original Photography Shoppable

The Foundry delivered by developing three eye-catching digital destinations rooted in Byrdie. Two of the destinations — “The No B.S. Guide to Holiday Hair” and “New Year, New Glam: 3 NYE Beauty Looks” — featured custom photography, while a third destination titled “Build Your Dream Beauty Stocking” brought client-supplied product imagery to life.

The team also created three native digital articles: “The Ulta Beauty Essentials We’re Gifting This Holiday Season” for Byrdie, “Everything You Need To Boost Your Beauty Routine During the Holiday Season” for InStyle, and “My Go-To Beauty Look for Holiday Get-Togethers” for People Chica.

On the social front, editor-created Instagram Stories provided step-by-step instructions for recreating holiday-ready beauty looks at home, as well as gift ideas. Static Instagram Stories promoted Ulta Beauty’s priority gifting products.

By leveraging Dotdash Meredith’s groundbreaking D/Cipher advertising tool, we were able to reach Ulta Beauty’s target audience in moments of intent, when they were looking at relevant content across our digital ecosystem, generating awareness in a way no other publisher can.

Because of this, the “Build Your Dream Beauty Stocking” destination delivered a 25.3% engagement rate, which is 6x benchmark, while “New Year, New Glam: 3 NYE Beauty Looks” kept readers on the page, resulting in an average time spent of 71 seconds (versus a 49 second benchmark) and an 8.3% engagement rate that was 2x benchmark. “The No B.S. Guide to Holiday Hair” also outperformed benchmark, coming in at a 9.6% engagement rate.