Marketing Happy Hour - How Rare Beauty Built Real Community Loyalty | Elle Rudnick, Manager of Consumer Marketing

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Cassie sits down with Elle Rudnick, Manager of Integrated Marketing at Rare Beauty, to talk about what it really takes to build a community-first brand in a category that's saturated with brands claiming to be exactly that. Elle brings a unique lens shaped by nearly a decade across fashion and beauty — from merchandising to brand marketing — and walks us through how she's translating that experience into Rare Beauty's integrated strategy across social, influencer, PR, and partnerships. She breaks down the no-phone, no-photos community dinner series she launched within months of joining the brand, why she's had to redefine what "perfect" means in a fast-moving industry, and the communication and collaboration skills she considers the highest-leverage investment of her career. If you're trying to build a brand people feel something for — not just buy from — this conversation is full of specific, actionable takeaways.Key Takeaways:// Consumer behavior doesn't change just because the product does. Elle's transition from apparel to beauty taught her that both categories are ultimately about identity — apparel is how people express themselves outwardly, beauty is more intimate, about how people see themselves and want to be seen. That insight sharpened her approach to emotional marketing across the board.// Consumers can tell when you're "just posting to post." The biggest trend Elle is seeing: people want real connection, not surface-level content. Brands that treat community as a checkbox get called out fast — the ones that actually build with their audience earn deeper loyalty.// Redefine what "perfect" means in a fast-moving industry. Early in her career, Elle equated perfect with flawless. Now, she defines it as clear, intentional, and aligned — because waiting for 100% polish means missing the moment entirely. Her approach: get to a strategically sound place, then execute and iterate based on real-time consumer feedback.// The best campaigns make people think "wait, that's literally me." Elle's taste as a marketer is rooted in emotional relatability — honesty, nostalgia, humor, and small human details. Aspiration still matters, but she's far more drawn to aspiration that feels attainable and emotionally grounded than to anything overly polished or manufactured.// "Community first" is becoming a buzzword — and consumers are starting to expect proof, not just claims. Elle is watching closely to see which brands actually back up the label with real action, and is intentional about making sure Rare Beauty's community initiatives are recognizable as distinctly theirs, not just another version of what everyone else is doing.Connect with Elle: LinkedIn____Join the MHH Collective! The MHH Collective is a community for marketers and business owners to connect, ask real questions, and grow their careers together. Join for access to live Q&As with industry experts, a private Slack community, and ongoing resources: https://www.marketinghappyhr.com/mhh-collectiveSay hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - We can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join the MHH Collective: ⁠Join now⁠Get the latest marketing trends, open jobs and MHH updates, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your host through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in. Grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode. Today I am super stoked to have a conversation with Ellie Rudnick, manager of integrated marketing at Rare Beauty. One of my personal favorite brands, just to learn about and to support. So super grateful to have you, Ellie. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. Thank you. Thanks for having me. What an intro. I appreciate it. I'm excited. Of course. Of course. Well, we're going to dive into all things integrated and just your

personal experience and your story. But before we do, of course, we have to ask, what's been in your glass lately? Anything you've been loving? Yes. Okay. Well, I am on a bit of a hydration journey. So I'm like day one LaCroix girl, like very brand loyal to LaCroix. I have like two Lemoncello LeCroix a day at least. But I, you know, on the weekends, I've been experimenting a little bit with like what LaCroi flavors I could put in like a little mixed drink situation. I love a tequila soda. So yeah, we're just, we're experimenting. I love it. Always experimenting. That's good. think I've had the lemoncello LeCroix, so I have to try that. It's the last one.

Yeah, I just, I love lemoncello in general. So I will definitely, definitely check that out. Amazing. I will, I will. I will report back later. So, Ellie, if you don't mind, can you introduce yourself to the audience? Like, tell us a little bit about your career journey and what brought you to Rare Beauty. Yeah, totally.

So I am currently the manager of Integrity. in marketing at Rare Beauty and I kind of sit at the intersection of consumer, social, partnerships, influencer PR. My role is really about connecting all of those channels into like one cohesive strategy and then making sure, you know, the consumer journey and experience feels really seamless. So I started my career in actually merchandising. and then pivoted into marketing, but I've always been in the apparel space until recently. But, you know, I spent several years building brands from both product and storytelling perspective. Before I was at, or before I started at Rare Beauty, I was at Set Active where I had the opportunity to work really closely across our influencer and partnership and community strategies,

which I think ultimately led me to Rare Beauty. And I think, you know, what drew me in at Rare is how deeply the brand leads with purpose and community. So for them, you know, it's not just about the product. It's about how people feel when they engage with the brand. And so, yeah, that kind of felt like a really nice, natural next step for me. Yeah, I'm curious to, you know, being in apparel and then moving into beauty, that's quite a transition for sure. Like there's a lot of elements, of course, that you can pull away from

that experience. But was there anything that you learned from that experience in apparel that you are now bringing with you into this experience in beauty? Yeah. Yeah, it's true. And I, there is a difference, of course, but there's also a lot of similarities. I think maybe that surprised me and maybe people wouldn't expect. I think the biggest thing for me was learning that, of course, the product might change, but ultimately consumer behavior doesn't. So, you know, in apparel, you're thinking a lot about identity, how someone expresses themselves through what they wear, and then in beauty, it's very similar, right?

It's just a little bit more intimate, I would say. It's about how people see themselves, and then how they're. They want to be seen. So I think that transition really sharpened my understanding of emotional marketing and beauty. You have to go deeper. It's less about what does this look like and a little bit more about how does this make me feel. So I think that shift has really influenced how I think about storytelling now that I'm in the role that I'm in, you know, across everything I do. Yeah, absolutely. You already kind of noted this a little bit, but I'm curious, like, what current, maybe trends isn't the word, but just, you know, through lines are you seeing with consumer behavior? Like, what are consumers looking for nowadays? I know this depends on the demographic that you're serving, but just curious if there's any, like, specific key points that stand out as it stands in, you know, May of 2026.

Yeah, I think a huge consumer trend that we're seeing. and have been seeing for the past maybe year, a couple months, is this desire for real connection and kind of like not only in person, while I think in person is important, but just something deeper than the surface level. So I think we're seeing that, you know, in our content, in our community strategies, consumers are, you know, looking for, they don't want brands that are just checking off a box. They can tell when you're posting just to post, but they want to feel something and they want to feel connected to the brand. So I think for Rare Beauty, and I think a lot of brands, it's really about strategizing and coming up with new ways to, you know,

bring your product to the consumer, but also bring them into your. world and let them build with you and make it feel, you know, like a personal relationship and a genuine connection with the brand. So I think that's a huge trend we're seeing and we're trying to move quickly on it. And we, at Rare Beauty, we love our community and our consumers. And so we want to make sure we have those real relationships with them and we give them what they need. Thank you for sharing that. It's, you know, we talk all the time in marketing about building that emotional connection with our audience, but actually seeing it come into play is a really interesting thing. There's so many different approaches that brands are taking with that. And it can be a challenge,

right? Like to do it without being a little too, you know, I guess clickbaity or like feeling inauthentic. And I think you guys do such a fantastic job at making that work so well. Thank you. We try. Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious to like what a little bit more to expand on that. what does that look like for you guys? Like what does infusing that emotion and that connection with the audience into your content and any of your marketing initiatives? Any examples, for example, or anything you want to share there? Yeah.

I have a sort of like recent initiative that I just launched last month in April. While I'm on the integrated marketing team, a huge portion of my job goes into community since we are a community first brand. So with my team, we launched a kind of no phone, no photos community dinner series. So we kicked it off. It's called Rare Offline. And really the goal was to foster this genuine connection in a space where I think most brand events, brand dinners, revolve around content capture.

And I think the concept of Rare Offline was really. really, you know, rooted in Rare Beauty's mission of community, belonging, and then mental health, of course. So we kicked this off in April. We're going to do it again seasonally, which I'm really excited about. The response was incredible. It was emotional, and I think very affirming. Obviously, we did this because we thought it was a good idea. But I think seeing the response and seeing the reaction in real life sort of like reinforced like this trend that we thought was happening. And really something bigger for me, which is kind of like I was saying, the importance of, you know, inviting the community in, not just to consume campaigns and product launches,

but to, you know, actively shape them with us. And it, you know, shifted my thinking from how do we tell the story to how do we create a space for others to share it and tell it alongside us. And so I think that, you know, ultimately is where deeper engagement and real brand loyalty are built. And that's just an example of, you know, we have, we have tons of plans for the rest of this year, but that's just an example of one way that we're trying to kind of like move on this trend and make sure we're bringing our community into the brand. on a more personal level. Yeah, absolutely. We'll definitely be staying tuned

and seeing all of that come to fruition. We're very excited about that. You know, speaking of just moving on trends and just even executing in the marketing space in general, there's always this balance between speed and acting upon an idea and this notion of not necessarily perfection, but making sure it's aligned with brand identity and goals and voice, et cetera.

So how are you? you balancing those two in such a fast moving environment like the beauty or even apparel space like tapping back into that experience too? Yeah, totally. It's a great question and it's something that I'm consistently working on. And of course, as you move through different companies, everyone does things a little bit differently. But you're right, both beauty and apparel, extremely fast pace because you're moving on trends. I think throughout my career and like with where I am now, what I've learned is you kind of have to redefine perfection or what it means to be perfect. I think at the start of my career, I'm kind of a perfectionist

type A person anyway, but at the start of my career, I was definitely like always focused on being perfect. But I think it's about redefining what perfect means, right? I think in depending on the company, in fast-moving companies and industries, perfect doesn't mean flawless, right? Like, you have to kind of, like, take time to learn that and accept that. But while it doesn't mean flawless, it means, or it can mean clear, intentional, aligned. I think if you wait for everything to be 100% perfect or polish, you'll miss the moment, right? And I found that, and I learned the hard way. But trends are fast, and so you have to move.

And I like to operate now with a strong point of view. I trust my intuition and gut. I like to get things, of course, to a place where they're strategically sound, and then execute and iterate in real time. But what I've also learned is the consumer will tell you very quickly if they like what you're doing or if they don't. So it allows you to learn and move, quickly at the same time. So for me, I think it's just, it's less about perfection and, and more about

responsiveness. Yeah, which that trust of them sharing that feedback is such a awesome thing to have built. You know, you're getting that, like you said, that real-time feedback. You're hearing what the consumer likes and dislikes. And that takes time to build that rapport with the audience where they are eager and willing to share. And so kudos to you guys for that. And I think, I think that's important just as marketers that we are, I know it's, it goes without saying sometimes, but just a reminder, like, it's important to pay attention to what consumers are saying and ask more questions and engage in a conversation with them because sometimes we're almost a little too close to the brand. So it's very helpful. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's true. I love that.

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to talk a little bit about cross-functional collaboration for a minute here. what does that look like to you in practice and not just in theory of course like how are you acting upon that every day and any tips for more efficient collaboration too yeah i mean i love this question because for me i like it's crucial for my role um i like eat sleep and breathe collaboration uh just because i can't do my job without my cross-functional teams um so i think for me Great cross-functional collaboration looks like shared ownership, of course, but not just handoff. So if and when it's PR, social influencer, partnerships, retail that I'm working with, making sure we're all aligned on the same goal from the beginning and not just, you know,

executing our part at the end. So I think, you know, in practice, this means early involvement, super clear communication from the start, ideally having a single source of truth, which is hard, believe it or not, that's a hard thing to come by. But it also means being open to feedback. And, you know, I think something I've learned over the last couple years is it's okay to let the best idea win. So I think like regardless of who comes up with the idea, what position they're in, level they're in, if it's a good idea, like, run with it. And I've seen, you know, success in brands and also hang-ups in brands when people are, get hung up on where the idea is coming from. If it

wasn't their team's idea, if it wasn't their idea or their manager's idea. But I think bringing everyone to the table, we do a ton of brainstorm sessions at Rare, which is so fun. But yeah, really letting the best idea win, regardless of where it's coming from. And then I think in general, again, just to reiterate the best campaigns that I've worked on are, you know, the ones where it feels like one team. And not everyone is working in silo in their own areas, but, you know, working together. Yeah. With that, too, do you have any tips for just improving line of communication within teams? like what are you doing within and outside your day to day just to improve relationships with

everyone? I mean, I think the biggest skill you can have in your job is communication. It's not really something that like there's no like blueprint for like how to be a good communicator. I think it's something that comes with time for sure. You have to take the time to like make sure you're clear communicating, but I think, you know, being able to clearly articulate what you need and what your vision is, not only does that help align teams, it gets people excited, you know, being able to kind of like adjust your communication style for the different people you're talking to or explaining your ideas to, really simplifying, you know, complex thoughts or ideas into something that's more actionable. I think that has been the biggest unlock for me. And again, especially as you grow in

your career, I think your impact becomes less about what you personally execute and more about how effectively you can bring others along with you. So as you grow and you become a leader or take on more leadership responsibilities, it becomes like essential and crucial that you can communicate clearly. This actually goes into my next question. We're going to dive into career a little bit further. But is there a skill, maybe even outside of communication, that for you, has had the highest ROI in your career? Yeah. I mean, honestly, I would say communication for sure is top. But I think also the balance of being able to communicate and have those people's skills, while also doing good work, right? Like it sounds super simple and easy, but every role that I've ever had

has this like equal necessity for, of course, like turning in good work, completing in time, like, you know, hitting your deadlines, you know, turning in quality work, creating product timelines and launches and doing project management. So like all of that is super important to like getting the work done but then being able to also balance that at the same time with those people skills and communication skills I think is important and and as I said before I think this comes with time and practice I don't think you come out of the gates perfect and being able to to balance both but you can't have one without the other so I think um the unlock for me and I think the biggest, you know, highest ROI in my career has been finding kind of like the sweet spot

between both and how to balance both. Yeah, for sure. And just as a marketer, too, going back to more of this like branding and, you know, overall campaign time, for example, like, how would you describe your taste as a marketer? What makes something feel on brand to you just in your current work, but also in your past work as well? Yeah, I think for me it's changed over the years for sure, and obviously the market changes, so that makes sense. But I think currently my taste as a marketer is rooted in sort of this like emotional relatability. I'm personally really drawn to campaigns and content that make people feel seen, whether that's through honesty, nostalgia. We're loving the nostalgia plays right now.

humor, just like small details that feel like real life. And I love when a brand can, you know, make me laugh a little bit and then feel understood at the same time and be like, oh, wait, like, that's literally me. Like, love that feeling. So to me, I think that going back to connection and community, like, that's what creates emotional connection. And, you know, as I mentioned this before, consumers are really really. good, like really smart, and they can spot when something is feeling like overly polished,

overly perfect manufactured. And I think for me, the brands that stand out and like what I'm striving for are the ones that are willing to feel a little bit more human and relatable. I think, you know, that's not to say aspiration isn't important. I think it is. but I personally am much more interested in aspiration that, you know, feels attainable in some sense and like emotionally grounded versus being perfect. As we've already discussed in this episode already,

there's this balance to that, right? And so if you can find somewhere in between to tap on that aspiration and tap on that relatability, I think that's huge. And there's a lot of brands again, including you guys that have really figured that out and so yeah that's a great reminder for us yeah yeah is there something too that you've worked on at rare that is really changed the way that you think about marketing and the beauty space i'm just curious if there's any surprising learnings or or things that you've pulled out that you now take into current things that you're working on in future launches yeah i mean i think

for me i mean i've been at the brand for seven months so i'm still new and learning And then of course, you know, there's everything we've been building and that I've been building takes time. So there's a ton of stuff that hasn't quite launched yet that I'm really excited for everyone to see when it does over the next couple weeks, couple months. But I think something that we've been able to move quickly on, and I hate to go back to this again, but this sense of community and the community dinner series that we recently launched because we moved quickly on. that sort of like when I came into the brand, you know, my my first goal was to study the consumer and understand what they care about, what resonates with them, and also take my like consumer knowledge and insight from other roles and kind of like capitalized on this trend, which is,

as I mentioned before, this like genuine connection and, you know, building community and belonging. And so it was really fun to come into the brand, having that perspective, but then also see that it is, it's currently resigning with our, with Rare Beauty's consumers and community members. And so I've been able to kind of like move on that quickly in, in the sense of we launched this, this dinner series that like I mentioned, we'll have seasonally. But I'm also working on our every single day I'm working on our kind of loyalty program which is in this app called TyB and it is an app for multiple brands kind of bringing their communities together and you can engage with them through chats through different like challenges and then reward them for their

engagement and something I noticed pretty quickly as I started working with the community in TyB is how motivated they are by that emotional connection beyond transactional rewards. So there is an option to reward them with cash for the brand, which we do. But at the same time, I was seeing a little bit more excitement and buzz around the opportunity to come to brand events or have early access to a product launch, provide insight on upcoming you know, launches that we have. So it's been really exciting to kind of build the world with them and build that strategy within TyB, but just at a higher level with our community in general and bring some of these really amazing, you know, sort of like strategies and activations to life.

Oh, cool. I love that idea of bringing communities together. I'll definitely check that out as well. But I'm curious to as we close out this conversation, like are there any trends or, you know, just things that you're looking forward to in general in marketing that you feel are going to continue to evolve and develop and things that we should just kind of be paying attention to as as marketers? Yeah. I mean, I think to kind of build on this like conversation of community and genuine connection and in person, I'm, I'm super curious to see how brands continue to build on community, right? Because I think it is such a buzzword right now, right?

Like everyone says that they're a community first brand, but I want to start seeing and I'm excited to start seeing what people are doing to like, I guess, prove it that they're community first, right? Because you can't just say you're a community first brand. and then like not actually do things that, you know, benefit your community. So I am definitely watching what's going on in the world of community marketing and consumer marketing, how people are bringing, you know, real life experiences to the consumer, bringing people in person.

Obviously, we're like very post-pandemic, but there's still kind of this like buzziness from the pandemic era when everyone was stuck at home. people are like dying to get together and be you know together in real life so um you know it's like this intersection of what's going on in pop culture like how that's sort of like influencing community so i am currently have my eyes out on the market for what other brands are doing and how people are getting creative with their community marketing strategies um but it's definitely top of mind for our brand and i think thinking about when we're thinking about community how we can put our, you know, rare beauty stamp on it.

Because we're claiming to be community first, what can we do that, you know, kind of like shakes up the landscape, but also people look at it and they say, oh, that's rare beauty that did it. So, yeah, I'm excited to see kind of what comes to fruition over the next year or so in terms of community marketing and consumer journeys. But yeah. Yeah. No, again, we're excited to.

stay tuned with you and Rare and just see what you guys have coming up and how some of those those things evolve over time. But just again, congrats on everything that you've accomplished in your career, everything you guys have been doing over at Rare as well. It's so fun to fall along. So thank you for sharing all that with us. Thanks for having me. This was so fun. Of course. Of course. Well, before we close out too really fast, we'll of course have all of the rare channels linked below, but tell us to you, how can we stay in touch with you as well, personally? Oh my gosh. Yeah, you can follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn. That's really where I share most about my work and what I'm building. But of course, follow Rare Beauty and

I'm excited for you guys to see everything that we're bringing to life. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us, Ellie. We'll definitely have to have you back and check in here in a bit. But thanks for your time today. Appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Marketing Happy Hour. If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources. We also invite you to check out the MHHH Collective, our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.