Editor’s Note: While many brands have rolled back their DEI support in the past year, e.l.f. Cosmetics has done the opposite. It became the first beauty brand to be a lead sponsor of an Indy 500 driver—and that driver is the only female that competed in the race. CM sister pub Event Marketer explores how e.l.f. teamed up with Purdue University on a “Lip Oil Change” activation at Indianapolis’ Circle Centre Mall that also coincided with the final leg of Taylor Swift’s U.S. Eras Tour.
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A rash of major brands have revoked their DEI support over the last few months, but e.l.f. Cosmetics is racing toward its diversity goals at full throttle. In May, the company became the first-ever beauty brand to serve as a primary sponsor of an Indy 500 driver—Katherine Legge, the only female driver that competed in the race. Then, from Nov. 2-3, e.l.f. teamed up with Purdue University to up the ante on its “Lip Oil Change” activation with “In My STEM Era,” a free, maker-centric event held at Indianapolis’ Circle Centre Mall that coincided with the final leg of Taylor Swift’s U.S. Eras Tour.
With an influx of Swifties—primarily women and girls—in Indy for the weekend, and females comprising only 36 percent of the STEM workforce nationwide, the organizations saw an opportunity to educate visitors on the subjects, as well as the university itself, which has the largest STEM undergraduate enrollment of any top-50-ranked school in the U.S., and offers the country’s only accredited motorsports engineering program.
By design, it was an easy 10-minute walk to the pop-up experience from Lucas Oil Stadium where Swift performed. The overarching idea was to use the In My STEM Era activation to draw parallels between fans’ interests in subjects like beauty and concert production, and the scientific fields behind them, with a goal of inspiring more women to pursue a STEM-related education and, eventually, career.
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To read the full piece, head over to Event Marketer.
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