Ulta x HBCU
WHAT WE DID
Ulta Beauty challenged us with a powerful question: How do you create 10 million moments of joy—and use beauty as a catalyst for connection and community? Our answer came to life as part of The Joy Project, a movement designed to shift the conversation from silencing the inner critic to uplifting the inner circle—the mentors, friends, and chosen family who help us shine.
More than a campaign, this was a cultural commitment. Together with Ulta Beauty, we sparked a joy-forward movement rooted in care, connection, and celebration, creating impact and showing that when beauty is rooted in purpose, it becomes a force for good. By amplifying these shared experiences, celebrating real people, and showing up in unexpected places, we sparked something bigger: an effort to not just speak to people, but speak with them.
Creative Concepting
Photo & Video Production
Organic Social & Paid Media
creative concepting
To bring the Joy Project to life, we partnered with Ulta Beauty and HBCU campuses to spotlight one of the most vibrant—and underrepresented—communities in sports and performance: HBCU majorette dancers.
At HBCUs, it’s not just about the game—it’s about the band. And majorette dancers are the heartbeat. These women train with the intensity of Division I athletes while delivering expressive beauty looks under the pressure of performance. Their routines demand strength, endurance, creativity—and joy.
We developed a multi-part content and activation strategy rooted in authenticity, emotional resonance, and deep cultural pride. Through behind-the-scenes storytelling, pre-performance rituals, beauty routines, and sisterhood moments, we celebrated the everyday bonds that fuel extraordinary performance—and redefined beauty as both preparation and personal power.
We took the beauty experience off the screen and into real life with surprise-and-delight activations designed to leave a mark. From campus visits to in-store hauls and community-driven events, we created joyful moments that resonated with Gen Z and Black audiences—communities often left out of traditional beauty narratives, yet central to its future.
At each stop, we tapped into social culture—putting a new spin on the “Attitude…Now walk off” trend. Dancers lined up to flex their hair, makeup, and nails, spotlighting how they use Ulta products in ways that felt personal and powerful. It was product promotion wrapped in personality, showing Ulta was in tune with the culture—not just talking at it.
These experiences didn’t just engage; they created a shared sense of belonging and connection.
After Homecoming, Ulta Beauty planned to activate during a less brand-saturated but equally important cultural moment—an HBCU bowl game. We created a social series featuring Grambling and Southern University's majorette teams and their beauty routines as they prepared for the most highly-anticipated showdown of the season.
Here we highlighted the team’s behind-the-scenes preparations, showcasing their energy as they bonded through beauty while creating their signature game-day looks.
Featuring the unique beauty traditions of the team, we traveled through time to explore the looks of alumni reflecting the progression of beauty throughout the years. This honored the legacy and longevity of these HBCU teams that span generations of dancers.
Here, we showed off game-day looks in full effect, diving deeper into the team’s hair, makeup, and wardrobe details. Because people eagerly await the reveal of Bayou Classic costumes, we knew that videos giving the first look would gain traction on social media.
On Game Day we were plugged into the teams’ looks and performances that took us from behind the scenes to the field. This leaned into the more DITL (Day in the Life), event recap style of social video, rounding out the range of content we tried for this portion of the campaign.
Photo & Video Production
Phase 1: Video Only
All store haul recaps followed a standard structure:
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Brand and school introduction
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Moments of shopping and beauty bonding between teammates
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Storefront interior and exterior, focusing on key products/brands
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Ending scene with a CTA prompting viewers to guess which school we’d feature next.
Similarly, the “Now Walk Off” challenge had a standard format. However, this was more focused on giving each girl an opportunity to show off her unique personality and style.
Phase 2: Video & Photo
For “Team Beauty For Every Shade” and “Legacies of Beauty,” we conducted interviews around current teams and alumni, but presented them in different ways. The former functioned as a BTS capture while they got ready, showcasing moments of beauty bonding and connection. The latter was a more traditional interview setting with editing reminiscent of Buzzfeed’s prime era of content creation.
Each final look breakdown was the big reveal for Bayou Classic costumes. We captured team members on campus, zeroing in on the details of their makeup, hair, outfits, accessories, and nails. Finally, we got into all of the game day action in the Classic content– a combination of docu-style and social-native videography to make the viewer feel like they’re seeing the excitement firsthand.
Photography focused on capturing organic moments between the women featured, and how they authentically use each product. This allowed us to have imagery that could be used organically on social media, as well as the Ulta Beauty website.
organic & paid social
Our goal was to create social-first, shareable content that felt native to both Ulta Beauty and the HBCU teams—authentic to their voices, relevant to their audiences.
Content was platform-specific: narrative-driven pieces found a home on Instagram, while trend-led formats like the “walk off” challenge were born for TikTok. Instagram also served as the hub for building momentum around the Homecoming Tour, thanks to consistent posting and a highly engaged audience.
We measured success not just in views or likes, but in emotional resonance. Schools, communities, and followers showed up in the comments to say they felt seen. This chapter deepened Ulta Beauty’s cultural credibility and proved that when beauty is rooted in purpose, it builds something bigger—belonging.