Welcome to The Week in Direct-to-Consumer, a weekly roundup for marketers from Quad Insights that sums up the latest news in the DTC space.

Jeni’s unveils four ‘intergalactic’ ice cream flavors ahead of solar eclipse

Ahead of the total solar eclipse on April 8, DTC ice cream brand Jeni’s is launching four “intergalactic” flavors, Food & Wine’s Stacey Leasca reports. Collectively called the Punk Stargonaut collection, the flavors are dubbed Super Moon, Purple Star Born, Nebula Berry and Cosmic Bloom and are “inspired by a fictional flight through the galaxy,” per a company statement provided to Food & Wine. For instance, Purple Star Born “was discovered in the bioluminescent bay of a meteor,” according to Jeni’s. Beginning March 28, the Punk Stargonaut collection will be available on Jeni’s website as well as in the brand’s stores nationwide.

See also: Beginning April 1, DTC eyewear brand Warby Parker will also look to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the solar eclipse, offering free safety glasses in all of its stores, as we noted in last week’s installment of The Week in Direct-to-Consumer.

Nicki Minaj launches DTC press-on nail brand Pink Friday Nails

Rapper Nicki Minaj just launched Pink Friday Nails, a DTC press-on nail brand that allows customers to choose from a variety of shapes and lengths, which is “a first for a press-on nail brand,” according to the announcement. Featuring eleven “social media-worthy” designs, nail colorways range from matte to chrome to camo and packs are priced at $19.99 and up. “When I became a mom, I couldn’t spend as much time getting my nails done as when I only had to worry about me, so it became a necessity to create fly, quality press-on nails,” Minaj said in the announcement.

The takeaway: Minaj’s Pink Friday Nails launch is part of a seemingly unstoppable trend. Last year celebrity beauty brands surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time, as we noted in a recent edition of “10 marketing, media and industry statistics to know now.”

See also: Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty recently launched Lux Balm lip balm, promoting the product with a film noir–themed two-minute video, as we noted in an earlier installment of The Week in Direct-to-Consumer.

Manscaped launches humorous ‘The Boys’ campaign

DTC male grooming brand Manscaped just launched a new campaign called “The Boys” that imagines “male genitalia as a pair of identical ‘boys’ that accompany men wherever they go,” Marketing Dive’s Chris Kelly reports. In the campaign’s national TV spot, a man engages in various activities — including strolling on a beach and attending a wedding — and then later uses a Manscaped trimmer to tidy up his “boys.” In addition to the TV spot, “The Boys” includes social media activations and out-of-home placements.

The takeaway: This cheeky omnichannel campaign “comes at a pivotal time for Manscaped,” Kelly notes, as the brand expands its distribution to Walmart this year and seeks further growth beyond DTC.

e.l.f. Cosmetics sees strong increase in monthly active app users

Following efforts to streamline personalization and communications within its app, DTC beauty brand e.l.f. Cosmetics saw a 125% increase in monthly active app users between March 2023 and October 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, Glossy’s Emma Sandler reports. To accomplish the feat, e.l.f. partnered with software company Braze to boost its first-party data collection, Sandler notes, adding that data-driven insights led the company to introduce additional touchpoints such as push notifications. Read the full story here. (More from Quad on the importance of first-party data: “What marketers need to know now about Google’s 2024 cookie phase-out.”)

See also: In December, e.l.f. debuted augmented reality murals, and in January, it released a true crime parody documentary on Amazon Freevee, as we noted in an earlier installment of The Week in Consumer Packaged Goods.

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