Organization: e.l.f. Beauty Location: Oakland, CA Title of Entry: “e.l.f. Cosmetics #eyeslipsface TikTok Challenge” Category: Digital Marketing | Marketing, Digital | 7c. Viral Marketing ($175)

Wow! Sometimes there are campaigns that deserve our highest praise and truly leave us speechless. We’re honored to say, e.l.f. Cosmetics is one of them. If you haven’t heard, TikTok is a new digital media platform that is exponentially growing in popularity and we’re convinced will one day take over the world. e.l.f. Cosmetics and its agency Movers+Shakers jumped on this trend and created the most-viral campaign ever on TikTok, with consumers contributing 3 MILLION user-generated videos.

So what did they do to become such a sensation? They created the #eyeslipsface challenge to activate a key brand pillar: “e.l.f. is for every eye, lip and face.” They hand-crafted a music track based on recent hit songs, that perfectly teed up the hashtag challenge. The challenge was an instant success, becoming the fastest-growing TikTok campaign of all time. TikTokers contributed over 3 million videos, passing over 4 billion views. They carefully stoked virality outside of TikTok. Celebrities joined organically, and they made the music available to DJs around the world. Not only that, but the song ranked on Spotify’s viral charts, from Australia to the Netherlands, and was picked up by Republic Records (home to Taylor Swift, Drake, and Ariana Grande). Together, they created & released a music video on Vevo and YouTube!

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, they got a ton of unsolicited celebrity videos, including Lizzo, Ellen, Reese Witherspoon, Howie Mandel, Kevin Hart, Terry Crews, Patrick Starr, Jessica Alba, James Charles, the Pussycat Dolls, Annie Leblanc, and the Chicago Bulls mascot. To check out their full write-up and campaign submission, please click here or scroll through the embed below: