Gen Z and millennial women are this generation’s pop-culture shapers. Catch them at the right moment, and they can skyrocket a celebrity to superstardom or sell out a product from a previously unheard-of brand in a matter of hours. In fact, women have a 70 to 80 per cent influence on all consumer spending. But despite a recent survey reporting that 56 per cent of women said they followed or watched sport, it’s a sector that has historically overlooked young women. Now, in 2024, brands are catching on and harnessing their power.
“They identified a gap that other brands had missed allowing them to reach a global sporting audience”
This summer, in a surprising collaboration, Fenty Beauty, has partnered with the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Founded by Rihanna back in 2017, the cosmetics brand is no stranger to a viral sports moment thanks to the pop-star’s iconic make-up touch up during her 2023 Super Bowl half time show which saw searches for Fenty Beauty increase by 883%. Now, it is providing 600 18-21 year old Olympic and Paralympic volunteers with free beauty kits and make-up training so they feel their best when presenting the athletes with their medals.
It’s a simple premise, but by focussing on the young volunteers, they identified a gap that other brands had missed allowing them to reach a global sporting audience while simultaneously creating a point of interest for non-sports fans tuning in. And it’s working; there are 129 million posts under ‘Olympics Fenty Makeup’ on TikTok and the initiative has led to coverage in titles from Elle to Grazia and The Evening Standard with two weeks of the Paralympics still to come.
Fenty Beauty is far from the only brand that is using the intersection between pop-culture and sport to raise its profile. Back in February, two current social media dominators collided when Charlotte Tilbury partnered with the F1 Academy to become not only the first female-founded brand, but also the first ever beauty brand to enter into the Formula One space. On paper, the collaboration may seem like an unusual choice, but by looking more closely at the way the Formula One Group has been marketing itself since Liberty Media’s takeover in 2017, it’s clear that this didn’t happen in a vacuum.
“The F1 Academy gives it global kudos away from its classic red carpet glam image, while The Formula One Group can tap into the nearly $650 billion market that is beauty and personal care”
For the last few seasons, there has been a real push towards visibility outside of normal circles, meaning a plethora of celebrities and influencers have descended on the grid, with teams from Ferrari to Williams extending invitations into their paddocks. An interest in F1 has become a secondary requirement and instead, A-listers like Camila Cabello, Kendall Jenner and Ed Sheeran’s combined 400 million reach on Instagram and TikTok has become the priority.
Similarly, the hugely popular Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, was given behind-the-scenes access to the F1 season in a bid to humanise the drivers and encourage a wider audience to invest emotionally in the teams, and by extension, the races. This was so successful that the same production company launched tennis focussed Break Point and then the golf docu-series, Full Swing.
So how does Charlotte Tilbury fit into this vision? This partnership does what the other strategies didn’t by placing young women at its heart. For the Puig-owned brand, partnering with the F1 Academy gives it global kudos away from its classic glam red carpet image, while the Formula One Group can tap into the nearly $650 billion market that is beauty and personal care. And, just as Fenty Beauty is doing in Paris this year, both brands are underpinning these partnerships with a philanthropic and relevant message. The former is empowering young people to feel confident in their skin and the latter is encouraging more women to get into motorsport.
Away from beauty, we’ve seen other parts of pop-culture ebb its way onto the sporting scene. Taylor Swift is no stranger to being in the public eye, and her career has been peppered with celebrity relationships with the likes of Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Hiddleston but none have been as successful as her relationship with NFL tight end, Travis Kelce. After a notoriously private six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, the openness and affection that the two have shown to the public since she was first spotted at a Kansas City Chief’s game back in September 2023, has made Travis Kelce a global name and Taylor Swift, arguably, the most famous person in the world.
In that first month alone, Kelce’s jersey sales increased by 400 per cent, and last year it rose to one of the top-five selling jerseys in the NFL, while his Super Bowl winning team, the Kansas City Chiefs, has made an estimated $331.5 million in revenue off the back of the pair’s relationship. Swift has raised her profile even further by creating viral moments like Travis Kelce’s surprise performance during one of her shows at Wembley Stadium and becoming headline news after being pictured celebrating the Chief’s Super Bowl win with Kelce on the pitch. The crossover between Hollywood and sport legitimises each of them to the other’s fans, and the same can be said for Charlotte Tilbury and Fenty Beauty’s partnerships with the F1 Academy and Paris 2024.
The sport and beauty industries are setting the example for how harnessing pop culture and sector crossovers can positively impact business. Although these collaborations might feel like unusual fits on paper, by looking at the success that Charlotte Tilbury, Fenty Beauty and Taylor Swift have achieved by collaborating with sporting entities like Formula One, the Olympics and Travis Kelce, it’s clear that reaching into new and unexpected areas can capture consumer attention in a big way. By making a name for themselves in other areas, brands are not only benefitting from becoming visible to a new demographic but also legitimising themselves in a new space by being accepted by the other side’s followers and fans. Simply put, surprising collaborations like sport and beauty, is a power couple as mighty as Taylor and Travis.