ICYMI: How e.l.f. Beauty Pulled Off the Most Extra PR Drop Ever
e.l.f. Beauty sent the mother of all PR packages to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And it wasn’t even branded.
The recipient was Oliver Widger, who quit his job, cashed out his 401k, and set sail around the world after being diagnosed with a potentially debilitating disease.
Patrick O’Keefe, e.l.f.’s Chief Integrated Marketing Officer, was scrolling like the rest of us when he came across Oliver and his cat Phoenix mid-voyage from Oregon to Hawaii.
The e.l.f. team jumped into action. Five days later, a care package was dropped from the sky: snacks, sandwiches, cat treats, and a few of the brand’s bestsellers, including the Holy Hydration! Face Cream and Suntouchable Invisi-Stick SPF 50.
I’m obsessed with the “how” behind big brand moments, so I had to know more. I asked the team to spill the tea — and managed to catch Patrick at the end of what was surely a busy (Rhode acquisition!) week.
ICYMI: Let’s start with how Oliver’s journey first landed on e.l.f.’s radar?
Patrick O’Keefe: I was sitting on my couch scrolling through, saw it… I think it was a Saturday night. And I'm like, ‘Oh my god, we've got to do something here.’ So I called up Brad Timmins from eGEN, he's our agency of record for all things immersive, and Emily (Ge Song), who's on my team, who heads up immersive, and I said, ‘Guys, what can we do?’
We brainstormed a drone drop. We basically started to unpack who he is, what his journey is, and look for insights. We noticed he didn't have a pillowcase. We observed his journey and we had fun with it.
We put a little mini deck together and then the next day, we got on the phone with Kory (e.l.f. CMO Kory Marchisotto). We went into a war room and said, ‘Hey, this is what we're thinking. We think this could be really fun.’ And then we started brainstorming some more. ‘What else can we do beyond just a drop?’ Because the one thing that we were very clear on upfront was we didn't want it to look like a branded moment. That was not our intention. OK, great, he's out in the sun. SPF makes sense. Skin care. Dry skin. Great. We also noticed that he was running out of cat food, he needed that. He was running out of snacks. And so we wanted to make it feel like it was right for him.
Personally, I love his story. I love the journey that he chose. He's a hero to a lot of people, and he's doing things that a lot of people probably want to do and they're just not doing it. We often say about e.l.f., we're all part of the Land of the Misfit Toys. And he's one of those guys just out there having fun, doing what he wants to do, following his heart. Clearly, he loves his animal, that's a big part of him. You’ve got to trust his judgment in the spirit of what he's trying to accomplish. And he did it. He accomplished it.
ICYMI: It's very ‘seize the day!’
PO: You've got to love that. In these times that people are out there trying to figure out where they fit and what they want to do, he did it and more power to him.
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ICYMI: Was there any communication with Oliver before the airdrop — or was it a complete surprise on his end?
PO: No, he was in the journey already. We found his social media manager, Skyler (Slatosch), who is just the coolest, kindest guy. You know, a lot of people were reaching out. And I remember getting on the phone with Brad and Emily and we sat through a session with him and it was trying to understand where his brain was and what he was trying to accomplish.
And the more Skyler was talking, I'm like, ‘Oh, my God, he's so e.l.f., he's so our people.’ And then we started talking about what e.l.f. is doing and what we stand for as a brand and the fact that we didn't want to make it a branded pack and we wanted to be authentic for him. And he wanted to talk to Oliver. Obviously, we wanted his permission. We didn't want to do it without his permission.
This all happened in five days. We started exploring what we could do? We wanted to be sensitive to what's happening, make it a sustainable drop, all those things that are good for the environment. We looked at a drone, we looked at bringing in a helicopter, which was probably the best way to do it. Then we went back to a plane. Then the weather started to get weird, and so should we do it with a boat? There were a lot of different avenues we were exploring.
Then we found this nonprofit and — kudos to Brad from eGEN — he found this guy where they train young kids to be pilots and that's where Aloft came in. So we sat down with them. We talked about the purpose and it just made sense to partner with them. And these kids got so involved with it. They went to the store with Brad. They helped pack up the thing, and they got on the plane with him and the pilot. They were a big part of the story.
ICYMI: PR agencies doing gifting could learn from this! Always ask permission — even if it’s in the middle of the ocean. And I assume this was a new experience for the Aloft kids?
PO: Totally. This was new to them. And they were a big part of, ‘What is the right thing to do? How do you show up in a space making sure everyone's safe.’ Number one was safety for everyone, and number two was making sure that we're not doing any damage to the environment.
ICYMI: What are the logistics involved? Does Oliver have to be in a certain location? Does it have to be a certain time of day?
PO: Great question. There's a science behind it. They dropped it in an area where he could just pull it in. Full transparency: He tried to pull it in the first round, he didn't get it. And then he went and had to go get it. It was very thoughtful with coordinates and the whole science behind it. I give a lot of credit to the pilots, the kids, to Aloft, to Brad, to Emily, my entire team just rallied together. Kory even giving us the freedom to say, ‘Yes. Let's go.’
ICYMI: Once Oliver reached Hawaii, he joined an e.l.f. livestream on Twitch. Why Twitch, specifically?
PO: We discussed TikTok and Twitch. I don't know how much you know about Twitch, but Twitch is a very active platform with a lot of people that are underserved. It's a community of people that really want to help serve the underserved.
We've built an incredible channel called elfyou. Basically, elfyou is a place where we want to create safety for women and young girls to come and play games and do makeup and hang out, because 77% of women in gaming were being abused. So we created this safe space. And we wanted to invite Oliver into a space where there are a bunch of us crazy weirdos that are all hanging out and doing cool shit.
ICYMI: After the airdrop, you partnered with Oliver and eGEN to launch a Roblox Game. What led to that decision?
PO: It was the same night when we were brainstorming. How can we give back? What else can we do to help serve the underserved?
We love creating games and Roblox is a really fun space. And quite frankly, the developers on Roblox are an underserved community. Brad said, ‘They have this thing called Game Jam, where developers come together to build original games inspired by a purpose.’ So we're going to do this contest, and they're going to build a game around Oliver and Phoenix and do something really fun. We're going to continue to work with Oliver for a few months, he's got some more dreams he wants to accomplish and we want to be there to help him do it.
ICYMI: Reactions seem super positive, but some people questioned how a sailor fits into e.l.f.’s typical customer profile. How do you respond to that kind of skepticism?
PO: I'm going to take you back six years ago when I was interviewing with Kory, and Kory said to me, ‘We stand for every eye, lip and face, and when you stand for the E in every you have a big responsibility, and we take it very seriously.’ So Oliver is part of the every eye, lip and face. And why not? That would be my response. He's living his dreams, and we love that.
ICYMI: How many ideas come from you scrolling on a Saturday night, versus having planned brainstorm meetings. Where do the ideas come from?
PO: They come from everywhere within e.l.f. We bring people into the organization that really want to do cool shit. There are trends that are happening every day on TikTok that we're jumping into and creating our version of what that trend could be. Right now, people are emptying out their Halo Bloom bottles, they're taking all of our lip products and putting it inside, and they're creating their own mixture of what they want for lip. Our community tells us every day what they want and we listen, we learn, and we lean in when appropriate. We can't do it all, but we definitely will find opportunities to create magic for our community.
ICYMI: What’s your advice for brands that want to seize opportunities like this and be a part of these cultural moments?
PO: I've been in corporate America for some very big companies and you have to be able to be nimble and you have to be able to pivot. That's what we do at e.l.f. Every week we have what we call a Tiger team of insights. The Community team reports into me and they find four or five or six or seven things they bring. We have Innovation in the room. We have Brand. We have my team, Marketing. We have Creative. We have everyone in the room. It's a huddle. We draw out things and we're like, ‘Oh, my God, there's something there. Let's figure out how to lean in.’ Then you make the magic.
ICYMI: Is legal there? Are they on board?
PO: I've never worked for a company where they are in it with us every step of the way. I can text our legal guy, who's beyond amazing, and he will jump on it. He'll guide us, that's his job. But for the most part we figure out ways. With Oliver he was with us every step of the way. I couldn't have done it without him.
ICYMI: That’s awesome. It doesn't work if legal is not involved.
PO: 100% without a doubt.They're in it with us every step And the same with finance. Talk about underserved people. These people are beyond.
*This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity
Super interesting though I'm unconvinced e.l.f. was the right brand to do it.
This is just so awesome! Big up Patrick for jumping on this moment!