In the latest surprising marketing cooperation, a beverage and beauty company have joined up to paint the town dead.
E.L.F. Cosmetics, which has a history of unconventional collaborations, teamed up with disruptive beverage business Liquid Death to create Corpse Paint, a new limited-edition item available exclusively on the beauty brand’s website.
Kory Marchisotto, CMO of E.L.F. Beauty, noted that the relationship stemmed from a shared admiration of the Liquid Death brand. “As a brand that’s born to disrupt in the beauty space, we’re always watching [other] spaces for like-minded disruptors and challenger brands,” she said in an interview with Marketing Daily. “What [Liquid Death] did to disrupt the beverage category was unparalleled,” he said. “We obsessively pursued them to get to a place where we could actually work together.”
The two businesses worked together on the main concept of the product and the ad video, which debuted today, developing a script that was then shot by Liquid Death’s in-house production team, while E.L.F handled product and packaging design.
Corpse Paint, while undoubtedly an unconventional entry in the market, felt like an obvious response to the issue of what the two brands would collaborate on, according to Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s vice president of creative. “We look at Liquid Death as an entertainment brand that happens to sell healthy beverages,” he told me. “On the surface, this doesn’t make much sense, which is typically why we do things. That’s where things get exciting and interesting.”
The five-piece cosmetics kit includes Dead Set Matte Magic Mist & Set, Kiss of Death Satin Lipstick in All Night, Eye Die No Budge Cream Eyeshadow in Wispy Cloud, Dead Line waterproof eyeliner pen, and Brush with Death putty applicator, all contained inside a closed casket keepsake with gold lettering.
As the name says, the collection is intended to be utilized to achieve a specific look.
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“You will see somebody looking like this in your [social] feed,” he warned.
“If people want to rock this look, that’s awesome,” he continued, implying that the hype generated by the two businesses’ large social media audiences might make the attempt a success nonetheless. The brands declined to reveal how many “limited-edition” products were sold.
The two brands have more in common than it may appear. Marchisotto explained that each is a category disruptor with a similar sense of purpose, with E.L.F. shaking up the loose powder of the beauty category with a line of vegan and cruelty-free products, and Liquid Death building a bold beverage behemoth by calling for “death to plastic” in an industry where U.S. companies alone go through around 100 billion plastic bottles per year, according to Bloomberg reporting from 2022.
The firms intend to exhibit the cooperation in a variety of ways beyond the premiere film, including unidentified celebrity and influencer partners demonstrating how to wear the unconventional design.
While such agreements are not unusual for E.L.F., Marchisotto described the collaboration as a “boundary-stretching exercise” for the brand.
“This was the first time during my five years at E.L.F. where I was uncomfortable…in the best way possible” according to Marchisotto. “The greatest moments come from discomfort.”
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