ions of several OG products and edgier marketing tactics.  In a panel dubbed, ‘Reposition your brand at the center of the social conversation’, Mac executives Madisen Theobald, global director of social creative, and, Cat Quinn, executive director of social and trend, discussed how brand has been leaning into on-the-nose social trends and quirky marketing campaigns to better connect with a new generation of consumers.  While some consumers may be turned off by a few of the brand’s more edgier marketing moments, such as the cheeky ‘I only wear Mac’ campaign, Quinn explained that ultimately the brand’s content has been connecting with Gen Z consumers, who crave authenticity as much as they desire creativity in a hypersaturated beauty market.  As Bethany Paris Ramsay, the founder of beauty marketing and communications firm Honey B, pointed out, “Gen Z consumers have a high BS radar and are drawn to brands that show up boldly, stand for something, and feel culturally fluent.” “Leaning into more on-the-nose, unapologetic marketing actually feels like a return to its roots, when the brand was a true industry provocateur, not just a prestige staple,” Ramsay added.  Repositioning your brand at the center of the social conversation When Mac Cosmetics originally launched onto the scene in 1984, the Canadian-born makeup brand was essentially created for and marketed to makeup artists and professional creatives.  However, not too long after the brand began steadily building a cult following amongst consumers with hero products like the Lipglass lip gloss and campaigns featuring cultural icons like RuPaul.  As Quinn told a captivated audience, “Mac has always been more of a culture brand than just a straight beauty brand. For those of you who have been using Mac since the 90s, you know that that has always been part of our DNA.” However, by the mid-2010s, the once best-selling beauty brand’s profits began to fall off, thanks to shifting beauty trends, an increasing number of competitors, such as Hailey Bieber’s brand Rhode Beauty, on the scene and outdated brand messaging. An issue that has not gone unnoticed by the longtime beauty retailer.  “We started to notice that culture and social are moving at a much faster and broader pace, and we really needed a team that was set up to meet that pace. So about eight months ago, we restructured our team and really allowed them to move with more agility and more like an indie brand than a 40-year-old legacy brand on social,” Quinn commented.  Gen Z, as retailers have come to understand, prefer a much more authentic approach to content creation that focuses more on playing into socially relevant moments, versus a more straightforward route of product pitching.    Tapping into edgier marketing tactics  Working with a Gen-Z-influenced team, Theobald pointed to an example of how instinct led the way for a successful Mac Cosmetics campaign, versus the traditional method of lying on consumer data, which is increasingly difficult to do in today’s fast-paced social media landscape.  Mac Cosmetics’ global director of social creative referenced a “freak out” moment the brand experienced when Trendmood, the “TMZ of beauty”, leaked the news about an in-the-works campaign regarding the relaunch of a nude-toned collection.  When Trendmood leaked the news of the relaunch, Theobald said, “We were literally like, ‘How could we potentially pivot this marketing conversation?’” Rather than cutting the campaign, Theobald said the brand took this moment as an opportunity to be agile and regain control of the conversation.  “If anyone was going to leak our nudes, it was going to be Mac. So we decided to actually move up the tease of our launch, and we ‘leaked’ our own nudes.” The cheeky ‘I Only Wear Mac’ campaign featured several of today’s socially relevant icons, such as cooking and pop-culture steward Martha Stewart, model Julia Fox and the singer Beabadoobee. The pop-culture figures seemingly wore just one accessory, a Mac’s nude-toned lip shade from the 90s, such as Fleshpot, Peachstock, Folio, and Stone. The advertising initiatives introduced the re-launch of these iconic shades while also ‘revealing’ a more updated and playful version of Mac’s approach to marketing.  Theobald and Quinn also referenced the company’s more recent campaign, which presented a modified, more wearable version of the brand’s Lipglass, called Lipglass Air.  The campaign, cheekily dubbed ‘Born Famous’, featured a cast of so-called ‘nepo babies’ including model Amelia Gray alongside her mother, television personality Lisa Rinna and Zaya Wade, the daughter of football player Dwayne Wade and stepdaughter of actress Gabrielle Union.  Quinn noted that the campaign helped double the brand’s Gen Z audience base and showcased Mac’s ability to tap into updated consumer formulation preferences and modern conversational moments. She also stated that brands trying to reposition themselves to be at the center of social conversation shouldn’t be afraid to be creative and take risks with their marketing. While some consumers won’t get the joke or may be a bit turned off by it, “the people who do get it” understand the inside joke thoroughly and will feel more authentically connected to a brand.  Quinn also reflected that in some recent comments, Mac Cosmetics has been seeing on its social posts, three little words keep popping up, “Mac is back”. “What we loved about that is that consumers who were following us and are seeing the shift on social saw that it wasn’t a brand new shift. It was a kind of returning to the roots of what Mac Cosmetics had been and what they emotionally felt connected to as long-time consumers,” she commented.  What retail experts have to say about Mac Comsetics 2.0  Regarding Mac Cosmetics’ revitalized marketing strategy, Melissa Minkow, CI&T’s global director of retail strategy, remarked that “Mac Cosmetics has been smart in pursuing Gen Z in a similar way to how it originally won over Millennials.” The CI&T executive explained that the brand originally won over Millennials with their “bold advertising that emphasized the impressive breadth and quality of their color cosmetics”. Now, Minkow remarked, Mac is leaning into the nostalgia Gen Z consumers hold towards many Millennial-favorite brands, “so going back to its roots and choosing authenticity is crucial.” Similarly, beauty marketing expert Bethany Ramsay observed that “the recent ‘Born Famous’ campaign exemplifies the brand’s pivot to resonate more effectively by embracing the nepo baby’ discourse. This self-aware approach not only acknowledges the cultural conversation but leverages it to create a narrative that feels both authentic and engaging to younger audiences. “To keep this momentum going,” Ramsay heeded, “Mac should continue to invest in creator-led storytelling, particularly across TikTok and emerging platforms where younger audiences and emerging artists and influencers are shaping beauty culture in real time. “There’s also an opportunity to spotlight its artistry heritage through education and BTS that gives Gen Z a sense of both how to wear the look and where the look comes from,” she elaborated. “That blend of authority and irreverence is Mac’s sweet spot, and Gen Z is ready for brands that can do both.” “They need to keep engaging in cultural conversations that matter! There’s always going to be a place for Mac, but evolving what that looks like is exciting and necessary for every single brand,” Ramsay concluded.