Cannes Lions 2025: Elf Beauty’s recipe for co-creation and Unilever wants to make marketing sassy

France – Day three of Cannes Lions 2025 featured panels on everything from Chinese social media to late-night tv and YouTube’s 20th anniversary. Among the standout sessions was a fireside chat with actress Reese Witherspoon, who introduced her new company Sunnie, set to produce content and events for Gen Z women.

Kory Marchisotto, chief marketing officer at Elf Beauty, joined Witherspoon to share how Elf fosters co-creation with its audience. Calling the brand’s method ‘zero distance’, Marchisotto explained: ‘I don’t wait for a report from some ivory tower. I get up every morning and watch TikToks to understand what our community is doing.’

When fans began repurposing Elf’s empty Halo Glow bottles to create oversized DIY lip glosses, Marchisotto and Elf’s chief commercial officer Jennie Laar joined a live-stream to make their own. Over 16,000 viewers tuned in, according to the brand. Within a week, Elf launched empty bottles for DIY gloss-making. ‘That’s what it means to co-create in real time,’ she said. ‘I want relationships with people, not reports.’

Later, at the Lumière Theatre, Unilever’s chief growth and marketing officer Esi Eggleston Bracey delivered a keynote entitled SASSY!! highlighting how the company aims to ‘build desire at scale’. She introduced SASSY, an acronym for Science, Aesthetics, Sensorial, Shared by others, and Young-spirited, the key pillars of Unilever’s trust- and emotion-driven brand strategy.

She cited recent campaigns like Vaseline Verified, where viral creator skincare hacks were tested and approved by dermatologists, earning a verified seal. Meanwhile, Unilever’s Dirt Is Good initiative celebrates stains as proof of lived experiences. Local versions tailored messaging: in the UK, Persil partnered with Arsenal Women to raise awareness about period stains; in Saudi Arabia, OMO collaborated with henna artists to discreetly embed period care information into traditional designs. Eggleston Bracey showcased how Unilever’s marketing approach reflects a broader shift from broadcasting to belonging.