Ashley Rudder®
Case · M·A·C Cosmetics · Fashion Week

$20K backstage. $200M launch.

M·A·C didn't run paid media. So I turned Fashion Week into a live newsroom, M·A·C TV, and that backstage engine opened a $10M content channel and seeded the $200M Powder Kiss launch.

RoleGlobal Director, Digital Content & Artistry
BrandM·A·C Cosmetics
CitiesNew York · London · Milan · Paris
Run6 seasons of M·A·C TV
$20K $200M A backstage content program seeded Powder Kiss, which booked $200M in revenue inside two months.
01 · The Challenge

A heritage brand with no paid budget.

M·A·C built its name backstage, on artistry, decades before social existed. The brand didn't run paid media, so every result had to come from creative innovation and the behavior of a real community.

Fashion Week is the most photographed moment in beauty, and the most contested. Brands treated it as a photo op. I treated it as a live event we could own, if we could move at the speed of the feed.

The mandate No paid media
Four fashion capitals
Backstage as the story
Best-in-class for beauty
02 · The Work

M·A·C TV: beauty's first fashion-week newsroom.

We built a newsroom inside Fashion Week. A lean crew across New York, London, Milan, and Paris, shooting on iPhone and cutting every runway recap within three hours of the show. Three Stories and four in-feed posts a day, for thirty days straight.

M·A·C TV became the best-in-class IGTV channel for beauty. Each season also produced a 250-page trend book that turned the runway into a product and content roadmap for the year.

The loop Identify the trend, live
Shoot on iPhone, backstage to front row
Cut in under three hours
Three Stories + four posts, daily
250-page bi-annual trend book
M·A·C TV · The Reel
03 · The Payoff

Backstage seeded Times Square.

The backstage program seeded Powder Kiss. The launch booked $200M in revenue inside two months and ran in Times Square.

A $20K content investment that paid for the category.

Powder Kiss
04 · The Results

One program. Category scale.

$200MPowder Kiss launch revenue, two months
$10MM·A·C TV content channel opened
4Fashion capitals directed
6Seasons of M·A·C TV
3hrsFrom runway to live
250ppBi-annual trend book
$20KTotal production budget
$0Paid media
A $20K backstage program became a $200M launch.
The takeaway

Content as the category engine.

$200M launch Beauty's first fashion-week newsroom $0 paid media
Video · Char Alfonzo & Pellicule Films  ·  Photo · GoRunway
Start a conversation All work
Next case
M·A·C Momentum