When the marketing team at L’Oréal-owned nail-polish brand Essie began looking for the perfect face of its new long-lasting gel polish, a certain pair of very large ears in Brooklyn started burning.
Who better to promote the product—and serve as Essie’s first celebrity spokesperson and sports partner—than the New York Liberty’s iconic mascot Ellie the Elephant, who became a cultural phenomenon as the team worked its way to its first WNBA championship last year? There was just one problem. “This elephant doesn’t even have nails,” Zoe Housman, VP and head of marketing and strategic projects at L’Oréal, told Marketing Brew.
That didn’t slow L’Oréal’s marketing team down. “She’s out there, she is attending events, she’s doing handstands on the court, she’s everywhere, so she can handle it all, just like this gel that can handle it all,” Housman said. “It really took on a life of its own from there.”
In April, Essie announced that it had become the New York Liberty’s first-ever official nail-polish partner, and Ellie got her first-ever manicure as the brand’s first celebrity (and mascot) spokesperson. In the weeks since Ellie debuted her new nails, a move that Housman acknowledged came with a fair amount of risk for Essie, the brand has seen elephant-sized results from the campaign, she said.
Elephant ears nails
As part of the partnership with the Liberty, Housman and her team were granted access to Ellie—but only after signing an NDA that Housman said prohibits Essie’s marketing team from sharing the identity of the person who plays Ellie under the costume. Housman told Marketing Brew that she didn’t see anything, anyway—but isn’t that exactly what someone under an NDA would say?
In mid-April, Ellie hard-launched her new nails via an Instagram post with Essie, but in the days leading up to the announcement, there were signs all over social that the reveal was coming. There was a post from Ellie showing her scrolling through photos of Essie nail polish, a video of Ellie arriving at the wellness cafe and nail salon Vanity House (where she ran into influencer and journalist Nana Agyemang), and teasers from several influencers.
To further promote the partnership, Essie partnered with internet personality Tefi Pessoa, who showed up in a post on the street-style Instagram account @watchingnewyork chatting with Ellie as part of the big reveal. Pessoa also shared her own videos about getting her nails done with the mascot, and she posted about the gel polish 15 days later from Coachella to demonstrate its durability. (Ellie, never to be outdone, posted her own 15-day update, too.)
Stay relephant
The campaign was largely geared toward driving earned media and organic engagement, according to Housman, and that it did: Outlets like Marie Claire, The Cut, and Page Six all covered the partnership, and the campaign generated more than 850 million impressions for Essie in 24 hours and 1.5 billion in the first five days—the brand’s biggest in at least a decade, Housman told us.
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Sales are also up: Less than two weeks after the announcement went live, the gel polish had seen double-digit sales growth, she added.
Essie is leveraging its partnership with Ellie across social in other ways. When Essie capitalized on the ChatGPT-generated toy trend by sharing an image of Ellie as a doll, it became the brand’s most-liked post thus far this year, Housman said. One Instagram user commented asking if the doll was really available for purchase (it’s not), and even Liberty forward and two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart chimed in, commenting, “Need!!!”
For Housman, they’re all signs that the risk of taking on an unexpected partnership is paying off.
“I feel like I was betting my career on this campaign, not because it’s the most expensive by any means,” she said. “I’ve worked with every celebrity under the sun in my 10 years at L’Oréal, but this was the biggest risk, and the boldest, and the most unknown.”
Gelling
Essie’s partnership with the Liberty doesn’t end with Ellie. As part of the broader team deal, Essie is doing a takeover of the Barclays Center for the Liberty’s home opener and championship ring ceremony on May 17, complete with Essie-branded foam fingers featuring Ellie’s nail polish and championship rings, Housman said. Already, the brand had a presence at the Liberty’s WNBA Draft watch party, and Essie will continue activating through the season, including by collaborating with players, offering manicures for fans at games, and setting up “VIP gifting suites,” she said.
“Ellie was just the entry way,” Housman said. “What started as digital and social to get that buzz then is turning into this multichannel approach that, ultimately, will be a full-season sponsorship.”