Revlon is taking aim at a new audience: football fans. From February 6-8, the drugstore makeup brand will host a New Orleans pop-up in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl, capturing the growing zeitgeist for sports and beauty partnerships.
The invite-only event will showcase Revlon makeup as well as products from other brands in the Revlon portfolio, including American Crew hair-styling products and Juicy Couture and John Varvatos fragrances, in an effort to reach both male and female demographics. Working in partnership with Athletes First sports management, Revlon plans to welcome up to 3,000 guests, including a mix of consumers, influencers, and wives and girlfriends of players.
For Revlon, the Super Bowl event is an entry point into the cultural conversation rather than a direct conduit to sales. Factors like Taylor Swift’s high-profile relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who will play against the Philadelphia Eagles at Sunday’s game, have made the NFL relevant to a wider audience, including an increasing number of women. The 2024 Super Bowl was watched by 58.8 million women, representing a 9% increase and the event’s highest-ever female viewership.
“This [event] is pinned 100% against brand relevancy,” said Kelly Solomon, Revlon’s chief digital marketing officer. “So going into this, how many people are talking about our brand? Coming out of it, how many people are talking about our brand? And then it’s our job to sustain that conversation.”
In hosting a Super Bowl-themed activation, Revlon joins many beauty companies that have tapped into football in recent years. Brands like Cerave, E.l.f. and NYX all purchased TV ads at the 2024 Super Bowl, with Dove among the lineup this year.
But Solomon believes Revlon can get a better bang for its buck through an offsite event rather than a traditional Super Bowl ad, which can run as much as $7 million for 30 seconds of air time.
“We want to be efficient, and honestly, we want to challenge ourselves. How do we hack our way into that conversation?” said Solomon. “I would say that the cost [of this event] isn’t even a tenth of what it would require us to buy an ad, and that’s one of the reasons we did it.”
Beauty brands have increasingly looked beyond traditional athlete sponsorship or TV ads when it comes to connecting with a sports audience. In 2024, Fenty partnered with tennis “WAG” Morgan Riddle on an event ahead of the U.S. Open while Estée Lauder hosted a pop-up at Florida A&M University alongside its homecoming game.
“Rather than just target the people that were there for the big game, which is a very elite few people, we decided to go before the big game. Let’s touch more people and make sure they have this super fun experience around the big game,” said Solomon.
For Revlon, the Super Bowl event is part of a larger omnichannel approach to connect viral social moments to in-person events. In September, Revlon responded to designer Christian Siriano’s call on social media for a makeup sponsor for his New York Fashion Week show. Revlon has gone through changes in leadership in recent months, as well. In November 2024, the company welcomed Michelle Peluso as CEO, replacing interim CEO Liz Smith. Revlon emerged from bankruptcy in 2023 as a private company after cutting $2.7 billion in debt. Its new owners include former lenders like Glendon Capital Management and King Street Capital Management.
But the play for football, Solomon says, came from the bottom up.
“We have a lot more renewed focus on a social-first omni strategy,” said Solomon. “As we do our social listening, we’re looking for existing conversations or nascent trends. And when listening around where our audience is and what they’re interested in, believe it or not, football comes up.”