Behind Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty makeup brand partnership with Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’

Rare Beauty products with a photo of Selena Gomez in character as Mabel Mora for "Only Murders in the Building."

Like many direct-to-consumer brands, Rare Beauty isn’t a major TV advertiser. The makeup brand, founded by actress and singer Selena Gomez, has only run two TV ads in its roughly three years of existence. TV, after all, is an expensive marketing channel, making it difficult for many startups to rationalize the spend.

Rare Beauty’s marketing team found an alternative way to get in front of some of Hulu’s 48.2 million subscribers—without spending on a connected TV campaign. Gomez, who is currently starring on Hulu’s popular “Only Murders in the Building” series, often wears Rare Beauty makeup while in character as Mabel Mora—which led Rare Beauty and Hulu to team up to plug a handful of Rare Beauty products.

The partnership with Hulu was cheaper than buying a CTV ad, said Ashley Murphy, Rare Beauty’s VP, consumer marketing, although Hulu and Rare Beauty declined to disclose specific financials behind the partnership.

“This is such a great way to reach that new audience—a TV audience—for us,” Murphy said.

From Aug. 9 to Aug. 22, fans could purchase the “Mabel Mora’s Must Haves” collection from Rare Beauty—six Rare Beauty products used to create Mabel’s signature look from Season 3 of “Only Murders in the Building.” If a shopper added any three of the six products to their cart on RareBeauty.com, they’d receive 20% off. If they used the discount code “MABEL,” they’d also receive a free maroon-colored Rare Beauty makeup bag, according to a Rare Beauty spokesperson.

Although Rare Beauty did a similar partnership with Hulu last year around Mabel’s makeup, this year’s effort included a more robust marketing plan, according to Murphy. For instance, unlike last year, Rare Beauty and Hulu teamed up for an Instagram post to promote the partnership this time around, Murphy said in a recent interview.

As of midday Thursday, the collab post had received more than 148,000 likes and over 297 comments.

A post shared by Hulu (@hulu)

For comparison, the solo Instagram post from Rare Beauty last year only received about 108,000 views and 165 likes.

Rare Beauty began this year's partnership with an Instagram Live session featuring pro makeup artist Cynthia Di Meo recreating Mabel Mora’s signature look, Murphy said. The brand also hosted a live watch party with 1,500 Rare Beauty fans on its private Geneva channel, which led to its highest level of engagement on the social media platform.

To drive more attention, Rare Beauty also shipped free products to influencers with “Only Murders in the Building” branding. “With this being a DTC exclusive, we supported across every touch point with the [Rare Beauty] homepage banner, a dedicated landing page, email and SMS support, and then a ton of earned media coverage with the ‘Only Murders in the Building’ makeup department head,” Murphy added.

The Hulu and Rare Beauty influencer mailer

Lifestyle news outlets such as E! and PopSugar wrote about the collab. Rare Beauty is also planning a real-life activation but declined to share more details.

This year’s extra marketing efforts have paid off, according to Murphy. Day one of the partnership saw Rare Beauty sales triple compared to the entirety of last year’s activation, which ran from July 25 to July 30. Part of the growth, Murphy said, could be attributed to Rare Beauty having more fans than it did last year. “Only Murders in the Building” also has a “growing fan base,” Murphy said.

Measurement firm Samba TV reported that 669,000 U.S. households tuned in for the season premiere of Season 3 of the show, up 14% from the previous season premiere. Hulu declined to comment on viewership.

Rare Beauty's TV efforts have mostly been limited until now. The brand activated on CTV after launching in September 2020 and tested the channel again about a year later for one of its mascara products, Murphy said.

“At our core, we are still such a startup,” Murphy said, “so when we think about how we’re allocating our paid media spend, we really need to be strategic.”

Hulu has done similar partnerships with DTC brands in the past, said Barrie Gruner, executive VP, marketing and publicity at Hulu.

For instance, Hulu struck deals with Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts in Los Angeles and Postmates for the Season 2 premiere of “This Fool,” Gruner said in an email. Postmates offered a “This Fool” special order—complete with donuts and hats—to Trejo’s customers who ordered in. Other Trejo’s customers received free “This Fool-inspired donuts” as part of the activation.

Hulu also partnered with streetwear brand Mitchell & Ness, rolling out a capsule collection inspired by the Emmy-nominated series “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” according to Gruner. The collection, which was available for puchase on the Mitchell & Ness website, included hoodies, hats and more, according to Gruner. Exclusive pieces were also made available in select locations in New York.

“At its core, we hope that partnerships like these are truly symbiotic and mutually beneficial,” Gruner said. “These collaborations super-serve like-minded fans and give them new ways to experience their favorite content,” Gruner said.”

**This story has been updated with a more precise description of Rare Beauty's age

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Phoebe Bain is a senior reporter at Ad Age, covering influencer marketing and DTC brands. Bain joined Ad Age in 2022 after founding Morning Brew's Marketing Brew vertical, where she also covered influencer marketing. Previously, Bain worked at Social Media Today under Industry Dive, as well as Business Insider.