Marketing

JCPenney Expands Beauty Presence | Brings Hyper-inclusivity with thirteen lune Partnership

JC Penney Posted On September 23, 2022

JCPenney recently announced its plans to debut JCPenney Beauty in its stores nationwide, following the initial introduction of the retailer-owned beauty experience in fall 2021 and its recent online expansion. The national rollout builds on the flagship partnership with thirteen lune, a first of its kind, e-commerce destination designed to inspire the discovery of BIPOC-founded beauty brands that resonate with people of all colors. Championing the beauty of inclusion, thirteen lune’s presence will be spotlighted in stores across the country and comprises roughly 20 percent of the JCPenney Beauty assortment. JCPenney Beauty celebrates its diverse customers’ unique selves by making inclusive beauty products widely accessible via assortment, availability, and price point. Paired with its more than 600 fully rebranded JCPenney Salons and vast range of private and national apparel, JCPenney offers the ultimate one-stop shopping destination for beauty and fashion lovers.

“Thirteen lune’s partnership with JCPenney Beauty is rooted in our companies’ shared mission to ensure hyper-inclusive beauty is represented in the industry and easily accessible to people, no matter where they live”

Beginning in October 2022, JCPenney Beauty will expand from its ten brick and mortar pilot locations to 300 stores by early 2023, and 600 stores by spring 2023. JCPenney Beauty’s expansion, and continued exclusive partnership with thirteen lune, is the next step in the retailer’s commitment to making hyper-inclusive beauty easily accessible online and in-stores nationwide. The full product assortment is now available at jcp.com. Stores not yet featuring the full experience will be given a preview of top JCPenney Beauty products in time for holiday.

“Inclusivity is core to JCPenney. We exist to celebrate and serve America’s diverse, working families which is why we are leading the charge to foster beauty inclusivity on a national scale,” says Michelle Wlazlo, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, JCPenney. “By creating a fully ownable beauty experience, JCPenney can quickly adapt and respond to our customers’ wants and needs. Last year’s preview launch allowed us to learn from our customers and evolve the JCPenney Beauty experience as it expands nationwide and online, making it unlike any other beauty retail experience.”

The new online JCPenney Beauty experience includes a virtual makeup try-on and skincare quiz to help customers find products for their unique beauty needs. JCPenney is the first department store to simultaneously bring both virtual makeup try-on and skincare assessment capabilities to its customers. Furthermore, customers will be excited to learn that JCPenney Beauty is fully integrated within the JCPenney Rewards program, offering more rewards than ever for beauty purchases.

JCPenney Beauty and JCPenney Salon now provide a fully integrated experience, with more than 250 unique beauty brands – from value priced to prestige – across makeup, skincare, fragrance, haircare, salon services, wellness, and styling products. Since launch, JCPenney Beauty has onboarded nearly 100 new brands of which more than 60 are BIPOC- and/or female-founded, with dozens more looking to join in the months ahead. The hyper-inclusive assortment includes exclusive brands and products that can only be found at JCPenney Beauty, including Relevant: Your Skin Seen by Nyakio Grieco, Reina Rebelde, Mirabella and Shades by Shan (launching 2023).

Leading With Inclusivity
As part of its commitment to bolstering representation in the beauty industry, JCPenney Beauty is anchored by critical partnerships with like-minded beauty companies, like thirteen lune. Together, JCPenney Beauty and thirteen lune work to support the discovery of diverse beauty brands, dispel the myth that BIPOC-founded brands are only intended for people of color, and promote beauty inclusivity. Thirteen lune’s assortment at JCPenney Beauty has doubled since last fall, increasing to about 65 BIPOC-founded and ally brands including EleVen by Venus Williams, MinttyMakeup, Buttah, Monika Blunder, Wander Beauty, NCLA Beauty, and Vamigas.

“Thirteen lune’s partnership with JCPenney Beauty is rooted in our companies’ shared mission to ensure hyper-inclusive beauty is represented in the industry and easily accessible to people, no matter where they live,” Nyakio Grieco, Co-Founder, thirteen lune and Founder, Relevant: Your Skin Seen said. “Together, we are leading the way for diverse beauty to establish its place at the forefront of retail, enabling customers to find brands that reflect their unique beauty and discover inclusive brands they love and can stand behind.”

JCPenney has also worked closely with Landing International, a technology platform serving indie and minority-owned beauty brands, to provide a national retail opportunity for entrepreneurial beauty founders and brands. JCPenney has prioritized onboarding indie and K-Beauty brands such as CosRx, Hanskin, I Dew Care, and Neogen that continue to be a source of pioneering innovation in beauty. Through these meaningful partnerships, JCPenney provides emerging beauty brands retail opportunities at scale and the chance to educate and engage with JCPenney’s customer base.

Education has always been at the core of JCPenney’s exceptional customer experience, both in its beauty and salon spaces. To ensure every customer is supported with tailored recommendations, JCPenney has educated more than 3,000 dedicated beauty associates and 5,000 stylists with knowledge on products and beauty needs for different skin tones, hair textures, and more. The retailer has also worked with Nyakio Grieco and other brand founders to personally educate JCPenney Beauty associates, ensuring an in-depth understanding of the products.

Building on its commitment to making everyone feel beautiful, JCPenney Beauty is partnering with nonprofit organization HairToStay to generate awareness and help fund hair preserving, scalp cooling treatments for low-income cancer patients going through chemotherapy. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, JCPenney will make a $50,000 direct donation and provide education and fundraising initiatives for customers, associates and JCPenney Salon stylists.

Visit jcp.com for a list of JCPenney Beauty locations opening near you.

Marketing

Dallas Mavericks Name Evo Entertainment Group the Official Cinema and Entertainment Center Partner

Dallas Mavericks Posted On September 14, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks and EVO Entertainment Group announced a multi-year partnership, naming EVO the Official Cinema and Entertainment Center of the Dallas Mavericks. As part of the partnership, EVO will become the Presenting Sponsor of the Mavs ManiAACs, the original all-male performance squad of the NBA. To commemorate the ManiAACs 20-year history with the organization, EVO and the Dallas Mavericks will produce a short-form documentary highlighting the entertainment team’s journey through the years, which will premiere at the EVO Entertainment Southlake venue. Additional Dallas Mavericks events that will be hosted at EVO Entertainment venues will be announced at a future date.

“The ManiAACs are grateful to be a part of the Dallas Mavericks family for over 20 years,” said Mavs ManiAACs Captain Rob “Big Rob” Maiden. “It’s with the support from partners like EVO Entertainment Group that help us keep the fans Rowdy, Loud and Proud!”

“EVO strategically partners with brands and organizations that are culturally relevant and know how to deliver high-energy entertainment ­– and the Dallas Mavericks do both,” said EVO Entertainment Group Chief Marketing Officer Marissa Blomstrom. “As we rapidly grow and establish EVO Entertainment in Texas and across the country, we saw an opportunity to showcase our venues to a broad audience seeking high-quality entertainment experiences.”

ABOUT EVO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP: Austin-based EVO Entertainment Group is driving the evolution of entertainment as the nation’s leading and largest operator of cinema-entertainment centers with a portfolio of brands that includes EVO Entertainment, EVO Cinemas, EVO Live, Elevate Rewards and ShowBiz Cinemas.  The organization creates experiential entertainment destinations that offer a broad slate of activities including films, lanes, games, and attractions like climbing walls, virtual reality, ropes courses, and bumper cars, while serving elevated cuisine from their scratch-kitchens and bars.  The company currently employs 1,000+ team members and entertains 8 million+ guests annually across 164 cinema screens, 129 bowling lanes, a 3,000-capacity outdoor music venue, and more than 45,000 square feet of gaming and attractions space. With a relentless focus on an elevated guest experience, EVO has a way to play for all ages.

Marketing

Nature Nate’s Honey Donates 50,000+ Pounds of Pure Honey to Celebrate National Honey Month

AdChat DFW Posted On September 6, 2022

The number-one branded honey company leverages Honey Gives Hope program to donate pure honey to 26 food banks and non-profit organizations across the U.S.

Nature Nate’s Honey Co., the number-one branded honey company in the U.S. and producer of 100% pure honey, is celebrating National Honey Month by sweetening the lives of individuals and families through the company’s corporate giving initiative, Honey Gives Hope. In honor of this special month, Nate’s donated more than 50,000 pounds of 100% pure honey to 26 food banks, food pantries and other non-profit organizations across the country.

“Every September, we celebrate National Honey Month and reflect on all the ways pure honey enhances lives,” said Nathan Sheets, Founder and CEO of Nate’s. “As stewards of the precious gift of honey, Nate’s is proud to provide a shelf-stable, all-natural sweetener to families accessing food pantries for supplemental support. Even more so, our donation is meant to help people who are facing difficult times and deserve a sweet message of hope.”

Nate’s donated product to 14 North Texas food banks, food pantries and other non-profit organizations, as well as:

• Central Texas Food Bank 
• City Harvest in New York 
• Freestore Food Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio 
• Greater Boston Food Bank  
• Houston Food Bank 
• North Country Food Alliance in Minneapolis, Minn.
• Northwest Arkansas Food Bank
• Nourishing Hope Chicago
• San Antonio Food Bank
• Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
• The River Flows in Santa Clara, Calif.
• World Harvest Food Bank in Los Angeles

With a goal of supporting families and helping communities in need, the impact of Honey Gives Hope is far-reaching. Prior to September, the company donated time, money and honey to 13 non-profit organizations in 2022. Last year, the company donated financially to over 45 organizations; continued investments with leading universities to promote bee health research; and donated more than 200,000 honey packets to schools, ministries and other non-profit organizations across the country.  

With Honey Gives Hope, Nate’s also contributes through long-standing partnerships and demands-based response initiatives. For more information, visit.

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Marketing

American Airlines Chooses Walton Isaacson as Its Creative AOR | Inclusion on All Areas

AdChat DFW Posted On August 31, 2022

Amid Covid-19 curveballs in the winter and a turbulent summer in the skies, airlines have a lot of noise drowning out their day-to-day details and long-term plans.

As the travel industry dealt with an encroaching omicron variant during the 2021 holiday travel season, American Airlines named Walton Isaacson its multicultural agency of record. Attempting to “better connect with Black travelers,” the airline asked WI to develop campaigns, harness social influencers and create video content specifically for that purpose.

Yesterday, during an interview about the airline’s performance during a summer teeming with delays and cancellations, chief customer officer Alison Taylor revealed that Walton Isaacson was recently elevated to the airline’s creative agency of record. This decision ended a nearly seven-year relationship with previous creative agency of record Crispin Porter + Bogusky—and gave American its second creative AOR since completing a nearly 25-year relationship with McCann affiliate TM Advertising. According to research and data consultancy COMvergence, American Airlines spent $33.3 million on media in 2021—including $23.3 million on digital/online alone.

American first reached out to Walton Isaacson in 2021 to see what the agency was about and if it could help the airline reach and understand a more diverse base of travelers. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and ensuing social justice protests in 2020, the airline formed a Community Council of seven Black business and community leaders. In one of their first acts, council members referred American to Walton Isaacson.

Walton Isaacson CEO Aaron Walton founded his agency with Cory Isaacson and Earvin “Magic” Johnson in 2005 and built a portfolio of brand partners including Lexus, McDonald’s and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. During its initial work with American, Walton Isaacson began establishing connections with one of the brand’s most underrepresented traveler demographics.

“American is looking for a collaborative partnership grounded in insightful and innovative cultural perspectives,” Walton told Adweek. “They sought an agency partner that shares this inclusive worldview and applies it in delivering best-in-class creative and communications.”

Inclusion on all levels

Dana Lawrence, American’s managing director of global brand marketing, admits that much of the brand’s advertising prior to 2021 “underindexed” Black passengers. It didn’t do much to include them or the airline’s Black employees in the company’s messaging.

That erasure has consequences. According to a 2021 report by MMGY Global entitled The Black Traveler: Insights, Opportunities & Priorities, Black travelers comprise 13.1% of the U.S. leisure travel market, despite representing 12.1% of the U.S. population in the 2020 Census. They spent $109.4 billion on travel alone in pre-pandemic 2019, but 70% said they are more likely to visit destinations and buy from brands in whose marketing they see themselves reflected.

“We look at our brand equity and brand health, and where we have the biggest opportunity is with Black travelers,” Lawrence said. “It wasn’t that we weren’t reaching them with our general market campaigns, but we needed to do it in a more authentic way that’s going to resonate with them more strongly.”

American is trying to back up its new marketing focus with stronger representation throughout its organization. It’s partnered with Black chefs and sommeliers in its lounges and inflight dining. It’s teamed with Essence and Blavity on both inflight entertainment and their connections to Black travelers. And it’s hired more Black directors and managers and partnered with historically Black colleges and universities to recruit more talent into the company.

Walton Isaacson’s tenure as American’s creative agency of record begins this week with a campaign entitled “Let There Be No Limits.” It focuses on the Black travel experience and how the industry has placed limits on passengers who view the world through a more expansive lens.

“Our vision for the partnership moving forward is to collaborate and tap into the power of diversity and culture so that American Airlines can truly live up to their promise of You Are Why We Fly,” Walton said. “Travelers of all backgrounds will see themselves reflected throughout their travel journey with American and distinguish the American Airlines brand from their competitors.”

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