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It’s Spring Break season, Coachella kicked off on Friday, and brands have been trying to figure out the best ways to engage. For Hally, the Gen-Z-focused hair color brand, the answer was not in California, but rather in Aly’s Beach, Florida — a small town located a four-hour drive from the University of Alabama. The beach town is a common getaway for the college’s students.
Over the past two years, through events on- and off-campus, Hally Hair has organically built relationships with the Bama Rush sorority community — specifically the sisters of Alpha Phi, Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi) and Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII).
“Last year, we were invited to bring the ‘Hallymobile’ [branded bus] to Bama [rush] to help the girls get ready for rush events,” said Hally founder and CEO Kathryn Winokur. “Then we went back to campus in the fall for the Alabama-Tennessee game and spent the week leading up to the game hosting events for various sororities. On game day, we had a permit to park in front of the stadium and streaked Alabama’s and Tennessee’s fans hair with [the teams’ colors].”
For the weekend of April 5-7, the brand rented a Mercedes Sprinter and drove 10 girls to a house in Aly’s Beach, which Winokur likened to a castle.
The brand has prioritized marketing to college students since early 2023, when, in February, it became the first beauty brand to create products leveraging the updates to the NIL rules: It collaborated with Baylor University on a line of Shade Stix in the school’s colors. Hally has also leveraged a branded bus, which it has driven from campus to campus since 2023.
Given the cultural phenomenon that Bama Rush has become — it inspired the 2023 Max documentary “Bama Rush” — several of the sisters have gained large social followings. Among Hally’s guests: Sasha Super (12,000+ TikTok followers) and Kelsey Ricardo (23,000 TikTok followers), both class of ’26.
The trip corresponded to the brand’s April 5 launch, a modern take on Sun-In called the Lighten Up Sun Lightening Spray ($16) with different formulas for blondes and brunettes.
“We decided to let our best customers launch Lighten Up for us,” Winokur said, referring to the students staying at the house. It also helped that these students are “the most sun-kissed girls,” as Winkour described them. Before the launch, the students were given lab samples to test and weighed in on the scent.
“What I liked most about trying the product before the launch was being able to form my own raw, unbiased opinion,” said Ricardo, noting that widespread influencer content can make it challenging to distinguish what’s real.
“It’s super important to be open to outside views, and I appreciate that [Hally] took the time to hear our thoughts and opinions,” added Super.
In the weeks ahead, Hally Insiders, the brand’s term for its ambassador program, will distribute samples of Lighten Up to fellow students, helping to maintain momentum about the new product.
Hally will not hold a press event or additional influencer events to mark the launch of Lighten Up.
Of the investment that went into the weekend, Winokur said it was higher than she’d anticipated. “While it’s only 10 people, you still need to make sure they’re all in great accommodations, and safe — it ended up costing us tens of thousands of dollars,” she said. “But we feel like it will prove a really good investment. The spend was comparable to the brand’s investment, to date, in its bus tour. Within 12 hours of the weekend’s events, the brand saw a 200% increase in Insider program applications. And throughout the weekend, it netted 500,000 social impressions.
Another option would have been spending “a ton of money on a big influencer, only for it to be one of several posts of that week,” Winokur said, when asked about the brand’s decision to host a house far from this week’s buzzy music festivals.
She added, “Coachella is awesome, but the price tag is so high for a smaller brand like ours.”
But, as some of the Alabama students may be headed to Coachella, Winokur said that hosting the Hally activation ahead of time was strategic — they’ll be stocked with Shade Stix before they go.
To ensure the Aly’s Beach weekend was a success, Hally partnered with several brands. Bubble skin care was featured in the bathrooms, Spanx gear was provided for a yoga class, Supergoop provided sunscreen, and Poppi soda was stocked in every fridge.
“A lot of brands that are much bigger than us are coming to us for advice on how to get involved in college,” Winokur said.
The itinerary included a beachside dinner and yoga, as well as two roundtable talks — one on “building your destiny” as a woman in business, hosted by Winokur, and one on mental health and stress management, led by Dr. Andrea B. Safirstein.
“I met so many smart and powerful women who are involved in a community … It was inspiring to connect with them and learn from their experiences,” Ricardo said. “And the honest conversations we had, free of judgment, were the highlights.”
From 2022-2023, Hally experienced 200% year-over-year sales growth, and it expects to double that number in 2024.
Hitting Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour? You need a silver-sequined mini-skirt
Over the last week, Olivia Rodrigo played four nights at Madison Square Garden and one item of apparel shined even brighter than all the purple (a Rodrigo-signature hue): a silver-sequined mini-skirt. The style originated with designer Danielle Guizio’s version, which Rodrigo first put out in June 2022.
“When designing this skirt, I had a few people in mind — one being Olivia, [but also] Dua Lipa and Taylor [Swift]. I initially designed it because I wanted a more extravagant skirt that shimmered to pair with a casual vintage tee. But I envisioned her wearing it in so many different ways; I wanted it to be extra, but I still wanted her to be able to wear it with sneakers. It was also important to me that it was comfortable, with a bit of stretch to it,” Guizio told Glossy.
Since then, Rodrigo has worn the skirt, called the Low Rise Paillette Skirt ($168), at least twice. And she wore a custom version for her 2023 “Bad Idea, Right?” music video. Still, Guizio said, she never imagined that, two years later, the skirt — and it many dupes — would be filling stadiums as Rodrigo went on tour.
Guizio noted that the skirt was also repeatedly spotted on fans at the Eras Tour.
“It made me emotional to think that my one idea grew so massively and scaled to that degree. I genuinely cried often — but also, maybe I shed a few tears because a lot of them were dupes,” she joked.
One Guts Tour attendee who wore the style was Alison Syrett, a freelance fashion editor. “I settled on a sequined skirt because it paid homage both to a vintage Todd Oldham look Rodrigo wore last year and her “Bad Idea, Right?” video in which she wore a Guizio style — I bought the same one,” she said. “And when I got to the concert, it was clear that I understood the assignment.”
It’s a trend backed by data, too. According to the clothing rental service, Nuuly, searches for “sequin skirt” are up 51% since February 1, compared to the same period last year. Forty-three percent of Nuuly users say they plan to rent from Nuuly for concerts and festivals this year.
For Gloria Larroudé, a 14-year-old Guts Tour attendee who also opted for the sequin style, picking her outfit went like this: “I found my inspiration on Pinterest, I got the skirt on Edikted ($50), and I styled it with a simple white tee and sneaker.”
There’s a good chance many Rodrigo fans are wearing Amazon versions, as sequin skirts — including the Y2k Sequin Low Waist Mini Skirt — can be found for as cheap as $16.
Spate Trend Watch: Pink concealer
Pink concealer has surged in popularity on TikTok, capturing an average of over 104,000 weekly views, a monthly growth rate of 3,600%, according to Spate. TikTok users are exploring concealer hacks aimed at banishing under-eye bags and circles, with pink concealer emerging as a new popular brightening solution.
Top videos feature various pink concealer products, including the Huda Beauty #Fauxfilter Under Eye Color Corrector, the L.A. Girl Pro.Conceal HD Concealer and the viral Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser. Notably, Maybelline stands out as the brand driving the highest views within this trend.
Related discussions on social platforms compare pink versus peach concealers for under-eye discoloration and spotlight the optimal pairing of pink concealer with pink setting powder. The trend has sparked a wave of experimentation, with consumers eager to test Maybelline’s pink concealer and share their reviews. Many users mention Amazon in their videos, indicating that it’s a go-to source for pink concealer products.
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