As a brand with a dedicated following, Ulta Beauty came to Acast to spread its reach and shift key brand metrics by working with some of the most respected voices in the beauty space.

Long-form podcast content offers brands unrivaled levels of engagement, with listeners giving their undivided attention to an episode of a podcast for extended periods of time. The challenge for brands, however, is picking the right creators to work with — and finding an audience for the content.

Acast created a collective of beauty podcasts — all taken from the Acast Creator Network — to build a bespoke branded series for Ulta Beauty. Gloss Angeles, Forever35, Natch Beaut, Fat Mascara and Naked Beauty came together to each create one episode for the series, with content focusing on the five pillars of the Ulta Beauty Skin Platform: 

• Skin Protection: Gloss Angeles
• Regimen: Forever35
• Nourishment: Naked Beauty 
• Conscious Beauty: Natch Beaut
• Skin Services: Fat Mascara 

This approach enabled Ulta Beauty to tap into these podcasts’ existing, highly engaged communities — with each set of listeners hearing messaging and an approach to storytelling tailored to them.

The series resulted in:

• A 45% increase in likelihood to shop at Ulta Beauty, among shoppers at competitor store
• A 90% - 95% lift in brand awareness, reaching half of the previously unaware target audience
• The creative easily exceeding Veritonic Podcast Benchmarks for all tested categories, especially “Relevant to Me” (84 score versus 71 benchmark) and “Energetic” (83 score versus 74 benchmark)