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Ulta pairs two celebrity-brand owners in one holiday push, testing whether founder-led margin stacking works at scale.
2020
and became the retailer's fastest-growing prestige brand by
2023
McRae launched Tate Inc
$400 million
in retail sales in
22 million
Instagram followers and Gen Z touring base offer a…
Ulta Beauty cast Selena Gomez and Tate McRae in its 2024 holiday campaign, both of whom operate beauty brands on Ulta shelves. Gomez owns Rare Beauty, which launched at Ulta in 2020 and became the retailer's fastest-growing prestige brand by 2023. McRae launched Tate Inc. fragrance at Ulta earlier this year. The dual casting marks the first time Ulta has paired two founder-entrepreneurs in a single seasonal push, replacing the brand-neutral ambassador model that defined prior years.
The campaign builds a closed loop. Ulta provides media spend and shelf space; the celebrities provide social reach and brand equity; the retailer captures margin on both the talent fee and the product sales. Rare Beauty posted $400 million in retail sales in 2023, according to industry estimates, with Ulta accounting for most U.S. distribution. McRae's fragrance line is newer, but her 22 million Instagram followers and Gen Z touring base offer a distribution bypass that traditional prestige houses no longer enjoy. Ulta is not buying endorsement; it is buying vertical integration.
The shift away from brand-agnostic talent reflects a broader recalibration in beauty retail. Sephora has pursued a similar strategy, embedding brand founders in campaign creative and loyalty programming. The difference is margin control. When the retailer owns the relationship with the brand owner—not just the brand—it can negotiate exclusivity windows, promotional calendars, and product development timelines with unusual precision. That matters when holiday 2024 already shows softer prestige beauty spending across department stores and specialty retail. Ulta reported comp-store sales growth of 3.5% in Q3 2024, down from 8.2% the prior year, but still ahead of Sephora's parent company LVMH, which posted cosmetics revenue growth of 1% in the same period.
The campaign also tests whether dual founder visibility cannibalizes attention or compounds it. Gomez brings 429 million Instagram followers and a mental-health brand halo that drives loyalty beyond product performance. McRae brings a younger cohort, touring momentum, and fragrance category entry during a period when celebrity scents are resurging—Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Kim Kardashian have all launched new SKUs in the past 18 months. If the two audiences layer rather than overlap, Ulta gains incremental reach without incremental talent spend. If they compete for the same wallet share, the retailer has simply paid twice for the same customer.
Watch whether Ulta extends this structure into Q1 2025 campaigns or reverts to single-talent formats. Watch also for exclusive product drops tied to the campaign window—founder-led brands typically negotiate launch exclusivity in exchange for co-marketing commitments. Finally, track Rare Beauty's sales trajectory post-campaign; if holiday 2024 comp growth exceeds the brand's 2023 pace, the model proves out and other specialty retailers will follow.
Ulta reports Q4 earnings in early March 2025, which will include full holiday read-through and comparable-store sales by category. That number will confirm whether stacking founders was arbitrage or redundancy.
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