- Olivia Rodrigo is the first celebrity face for millennial-cult brand Glossier.
- The DTC beauty company is trying to capture Gen Z's loyalty as they become the economy's "it" generation.
- It's likely the first of many marketing shifts among Instagram-born companies that millennials love.
Not even a decade into its existence, Glossier is getting a new face.
The millennial cult-favorite beauty brand tapped 20-year-old pop singer Olivia Rodrigo as its first official celebrity ambassador on Tuesday.
Following two rounds of layoffs since 2020 and reports of a sometimes chaotic and unstable work environment, it's a strategic bid for the $1.8 million company to stay relevant as Gen Z becomes the economy's trendsetters. It's also the first of what will likely be many companies shifting their look as direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands like Glossier that once catered specifically to millennials work to attract the next generation holding all the upcoming spending power.
With a millennial pink palette, a clean typeface, and minimalist pastel packaging, Glossier originally built success by making its product the content. The Instagrammability of its staples made it millennial catnip and the epitome of the aesthetic that reigned supreme in the 2010s, which The Cut's Molly Fischer described as "soft in its colors and in its lines, curved and unthreatening."
It's the same aesthetic that has become the norm for many DTC brands born on Instagram to capture the attention of millennials, from Away luggage to Parachute home goods. But what once made Glossier so successful has potentially pigeon-holed the brand in the new decade.
"Having that fluidity around how you present your brand allows you to morph as time goes on, and allows you the space to do it," Lisa Guerrera, co-founder of beauty and wellness brand Experiment, recently told Beauty Matter. "Glossier never had the brand space, in my opinion, to do that. They set up really strong brand walls, which obviously made the aesthetic super iconic, but it also can create the inevitable feeling that those brand aesthetics are outdated."
Glossier's founder Emily Weiss spent years trying to elevate the beauty brand for its next stage of success by transforming it into a tech company, but former employees recently told Insider's Melkorka Licea the efforts sparked internal tensions. In 2020, Glossier laid off its retail staff and closed all its brick-and-mortars. In January 2022, it laid off more than 80 employees.
"Over the past two years, we prioritized certain strategic projects that distracted us from the laser-focus we needed to have on our core business: scaling our beauty brand," Weiss wrote in an email to employees.
Enter Olivia Rodrigo. A partnership with the Gen Z singer who burst into the limelight last year "signifies the brand's focus on building authentic talent partnerships grounded in real-life connections and shared values," according to Glossier's press release.
The company's play to refocus its efforts comes during the much-talked-about vibe shift in the economy. Part of that shift has seen Gen Z become the 'it' generation in a post-vaccinated world, with the eldest driving trends and influencing consumer spending. While millennials still hold the most spending power, Gen Z is set to take over the economy in a decade as their collective income reaches $33 trillion.
Gen Z is known for dismissing the 2010s economy in which millennials came of age, opting for aesthetics reminiscent of a pre-social media era. Glossier may not have changed its aesthetic, but signing a celebrity as the face of a beauty brand is a pre-social media marketing tool used by classic retail beauty brands like Maybelline. In this sense, Glossier is aligning with Gen Z's rejection of Instagram trends by relying on a Gen Z superstar.
It's a shift that many millennial DTC brands will have to rely on as Gen Zers continue to reject the perfectly curated Instagram vibes that were at the backbone of their success, preferring unfiltered, bright, and fun trends. Tapping Olivia Rodrigo is just one way these brands can make Gen Z hear them.