Why e.l.f., the NWSL's first beauty sponsor, is going all in on women's sports"We want to be where our community is."
Hi, friends. First off: I’m in Tampa for the Final Four! If you’re here too, let’s meet up! Now, I’ll be honest: March Madness has taken over my life the past few weeks. But while I’ve been bracketing, many other things have happened in the world of women’s sports, including the start of the 2025 NWSL season! Said season is already three weeks old, and while we will have plenty of coverage of the league in the coming months, here’s a quick and woefully inadequate cheat sheet if you, like me, have been consumed with college basketball:
Additionally, there are plenty of business storylines worth noting, if such things intrigue you. (Which, if you’re here, I bet they do!) There are no new teams in the league this season, but expansion is still a huge part of the narrative — four new teams have been added to the league since 2021, and two more will be added in 2026, giving us a sweet 16 of a different sort. Those new teams will be Boston Legacy FC (the rebrand is complete!) and a still-unnamed club in Denver, Colorado, which announced its plans for a temporary stadium last week. Financially, things continue to trend in the right direction — the Denver owners paid a record $110 million expansion fee, and the league is reportedly shopping a fifth television package to broadcasters that features about 100 games. (The NWSL is currently in the second year of a four-year, $240 million deal with Amazon, CBS, ESPN, and Scripps’ Ion Television; according to the Sports Business Journal, all four of those networks have already sold out their advertising inventory for the 2025 season!) On top of that, the NWSL has a few exciting new sponsors this season — most notably, in my opinion, e.l.f. cosmetics, which has been named the official makeup and skincare partner of the league. Among other things, the deal means that e.l.f. will be the presenting partner of the NWSL Challenge Cup and Championship Cup through 2027 and partner with the league on the “Glow for Glory Contest,” which will involve “hosting an open tryout in key NWSL markets to clear the path for young talent to develop, grow and kick the e.l.f.ing conversation about diverse, inclusive and equitable playing fields into high gear.” (Exact details TBD.) I was very intrigued by this partnership announcement, not only because in 2025 it is somehow the NWSL’s first beauty sponsorship, but also because I’ve noticed e.l.f. popping up as a sponsor and partner across the women’s sports space over the past few years. So I did some digging.
A Q&A with Patrick O’Keefe, e.l.f.'s CMOIt turns out, e.l.f'.’s first foray into women’s sports came in 2023, when it partnered with female race car driver Katherine Legge at the Indianapolis 500. Later that year, the brand partnered with Billie Jean King to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the “Battle of the Sexes” and equal prize money at the U.S. Open. Last year, it became the official beauty brand of the PWHL, the presenting sponsor of the Billie Jean King Cup, and partnered with King on its Change the Board Game campaign. This year, in addition to its NWSL sponsorship, it served as the first beauty sponsor of the largest high school girls wrestling competition, the Wonder Women of Wrestling Varsity Tournament. Pretty cool! Last month, I spoke with Patrick O’Keefe, e.l.f.'s Chief Integrated Marketing Officer, about e.l.f.’s journey into the space. I think you will enjoy his insights.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. POWER PLAYS: As someone who's been in the women's sports space for over a decade, I've always felt like there was this missing connection between beauty brands and women's sports. I would watch these basketball players and be like, “Oh my gosh, their lashes are still on. How? Give me that brand!” Or, you know, “How are these soccer players who are out in the sun all day protecting their skin?” With your work in women’s sports, do you feel like you've been able to seize an opportunity that's kind-of been right in front of everyone's face all along? PATRICK O’KEEFE: There have been brands out there that have supported [women’s] sports, and I'm not criticizing it. Any support for women in sports is a plus. It's great. Congrats. Love all of it. We want to go on a deeper level. We want to build a community of people that maybe are the underserved, that are not getting that support. And yeah, we have products that we will provide to them, of course. But for us, it's more around, how do we continue to build the story and the narrative that's really giving these young girls the tools to become really strong, powerful leaders? PP: Katherine Legge was one of the first sports partnerships that you did. How did that come about? Did you know of her? PO: An email came across my desk [from her PR team, about Legge being the only female driver in the Indy 500]. At e.l.f, we always say we’re a bold disrupter with a kind heart (that aims to) disrupt norms, shape culture, and connect communities. That's the framework that we always lean into. And it's about accessibility, positivity, and inclusivity, and everything we do has to have that lens. So when you look at a sport like motor sports, and there's only one woman driver, you're like, okay, that doesn't feel right. So how do we go in and support her? We want to always build up communities that are underserved. It's the same thing with wrestling, you know? Wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports in high school. There were 700 of these young girls in Columbia, Missouri, and there were 3,000 people showing up for this wrestling tournament the day after New Year's. And it was just the coolest thing to see these families show up to support their sister, their daughter, whatever it was, in a way that no one else was showing up for them. And I will never forget that one of the girls said to me, she's like, “I can go be a badass on that mat, and then come out and e.l.f. is here helping me look great.” And the other part of that conversation is that there are 14 different weight classes, so it's a sport that really does provide inclusivity. PP: With your NWSL partnership and the “Glow for Glory Contest,” is your hope to really work on the grassroots and amateur side of things, like you did with the wrestling? PO: One hundred percent. We want to be where the underserved are not being served, and we want to help them. Like when we launched our album, “Get Ready With Music.” We know that even in the music space, it's so hard for women to advance — even though you’ve got Taylor Swift and Beyonce and all that, but emerging talent, they they have it really hard. So we created this album just to help support them and give them a platform. We partnered with the Elton John AIDS Oscar party, and we had two of our artists that were there, and they got to sing right after Chappell Roan. So they were on the same platform, they were on a stage in front of this influential audience. We're giving them a platform to really show up. So it's the same with soccer. It's going to be the same as with all the sports that we're doing, and it just comes from a place of just wanting to help. PP: How did the partnership with Billie Jean King come about? PO: It was really, we love what she stands for. We were just starting our Change the Board Game campaign, and there was nobody that can really support equality better than Billie. And it was just a natural fit. We pitched the idea, and she loved it, and then it just led into a beautiful relationship. Now we’ve done partnerships with the PWHL, which is the hockey league, also owned by Billie Jean; Kendall Coyne Schofield is a big fan, and she's part of the family as well. And then you've got the Billie Jean King Cup, which is another partnership that we did, a three-year deal . What I love about that story is she’s the first woman that has a sports cup named after her, which is huge. That's massive. We're going to continue to do more with her. She's family. She really is family. PP: I love everything you're saying, and I do I believe you when you're talking about wanting to empower women and get them into the boardrooms. I don't mean to imply any of that is disingenuous at all. But I also know that this is business, right? You're still trying to promote a brand. So, since you're making more of these deals, is it fair to say that you're seeing business reasons to continue partnering in women's sports? PO: Yeah, we do have to sell product. But marketing isn't buy one, get one free. Marketing is about leaning into your community — listening, learning and leaning in. And when you listen and you learn and you lean in and you build with your community, you will see results, I can promise you that. E.l.f. is proof of that. You have people from every walk of life that are engaged with our brand in some way, and they are playing sports, or their daughters are playing sports, so at the end of the day, we want to be where our community is, and we'll continue to do that and the results will continue to come in. You're currently a free subscriber to Power Plays. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
|
