From 3 to 4 January, 700 athletes gathered for the sixth annual Wonder Women of Wrestling Varsity Tournament in Missouri. More than 3,000 spectators gathered to watch some of the nation’s most formidable high school female wrestlers compete across 1,300 matches. In the background, prominent branding from its new sponsor: Elf Beauty.
The wrestling tournament adds to the growing list of niche women’s sports the cosmetics company is supporting as it seeks to broaden its reach while underscoring its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I).
“We’re constantly looking at where we can serve the underserved,” says Elf chief marketing officer Kory Marchisotto. “Research shows that 84 per cent of all sports fans are interested in female sports yet it receives only 15 per cent of overall sports media coverage and less than 10 per cent of sports marketing budgets. That just doesn’t make any sense.”
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Amid a global beauty slowdown and waning consumer demand, Elf continues to defy expectations, racking up 23 consecutive quarters of growth in net sales and market share. With revenues expected to hit $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2025, the company puts its success down to its ethos of diversity and inclusion. “It’s baked into our DNA,” says Marchisotto. “We started out as a disruptor brand back in 2004, selling premium cosmetics for $1 over the internet. Our mission has always been to make the best of beauty accessible to every eye, lip and face — and it’s crucial that our team reflects the diverse consumers we serve. At Elf, we don’t have a chief DE&I officer. That’s the job of every single employee.”
McKinsey’s latest Women in the Workplace report shows that company commitment to diversity is declining despite the continued underrepresentation of women at every stage of the corporate pipeline. “As the world continues to pull itself out of a pandemic slump, the conversation has firmly been rooted in staying afloat rather than showing up, which has caused many brands to shift their very public outcry to simply a murmur about their stance on DE&I, and what they’re doing behind the scenes to advocate for underrepresented communities,” says Daniel Peters, founder of Fashion Minority Report.
Elf has called for equality beyond its four walls. Last year, it launched its eye-catching ‘So Many Dicks’ campaign, highlighting that there are more men named Richard, Rick or Dick serving on public company boards than entire groups of underrepresented people. The slogan was emblazoned across digital screens at some of New York’s busiest business hubs, including Wall Street. “The point was to have a campaign that was both jarring and based on facts. We wanted to shock people into awareness,” says Marchisotto. “It was our most viral campaign to date.”
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2024 was a big year for fashion and sport, and these tie-ins are only expected to pick up speed as fashion focuses increasingly on inclusivity, and sport’s cultural influence grows.
Last year, Elf became a founding sponsor of the iHeart Women’s Sports Audio Network, an audio platform dedicated to women’s sports. It also became the first beauty brand to sponsor the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) in its inaugural season; the first to sponsor an entry in the Indy 500, with professional race car driver Katherine Legge; and the first to sponsor tennis’s Billie Jean King Cup, the world’s largest annual team competition in women’s sport.
Elf’s latest partnership with the Wonder Women of Wrestling Varsity Tournament marks a deeper push into underrepresented female sports and a bid to broaden its reach among Gen Z consumers. Wrestling is the fastest-growing high school sport in the US, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The number of girls participating in the sport has jumped from 112 in 1990 to over 64,000 in 2024.
A recent report from the Women’s Sport Trust, entitled ‘The Buck Stops Here’, shows how interest in women’s sport sponsorship is on the rise. Eighty-six per cent of brands say their women’s sport sponsorships have met or exceeded ROI (return on investment) expectations, while four in five brand decision-makers say they are likely to invest in this area within the next three years.
According to Women’s Sport Trust CEO Tammy Parlour, a growing number of brands understand the potential of women’s sport, but more needs to be done to make it visible and commercially viable. “The reality is that money is not yet pouring into women’s sport,” she explains. The report cites budget restrictions, a lack of information on the most effective activations and uncertainty around how to engage with fans as the biggest blockers for marketers.
Marchisotto says Elf will be upping its investment in the sector this year. “We’re exploring several expansions of our women in sports narrative. We want to keep disrupting norms, showing up in unexpected places and driving the cultural conversation.”
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