The Holy Edit / October 2026
From rhode’s café to e.l.f. POP: how brands create reasons to participate
A café that leads to a beauty counter. A festival store that gives guests several ways to make content. A fragrance launch built around a place, its music and its illustrators. The useful thread in these campaigns is the role they give the audience. People have something to try, make, recognize or carry into a second encounter.
This October briefing brings together 21 verified examples from two campaign roundups, checked against brand pages and reporting. It is a mix of new announcements, ongoing work and earlier campaigns that help explain the pattern. Dates below matter: a planned rollout is not an open store, and a current product page is not proof of a launch this week.
At Holy Marketing, we see an operational question underneath the creative: what happens after the first impression? A creator partnership needs a route from the story to the next action, with a clear role for distribution and follow-up.
01 / Build a moment people can enter
rhode × Sephora — A café with a next step
rhode’s Paris café at Le Bonaparte ran September 30–October 4. Guests could take a keepsake metro card to selected Sephora stores for a sample with a rhode purchase, through October 5.
The useful detail is the handoff: hospitality creates the encounter, a physical object carries the invitation, and retail completes the journey. Plan that next step before designing the photo opportunity.
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OUTCAST — Build moments guests can make their own
OUTCAST’s Portola festival activation in San Francisco took the form of an “Inconvenience Store,” with photo formats including a fridge camera and souvenir receipts. The brand recapped it October 2.
Several small creative prompts can give visitors different ways to participate. Design a sequence of actions, then check whether each action has a purpose beyond filling a camera roll.
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Homecourt × COQODAQ — Turn a routine into a trial
Homecourt’s COQODAQ handwashing activation runs September 15–October 15, according to interviews with the partners. Guests encounter the products during an existing restaurant ritual.
Sampling has a better brief when the setting already creates a need. Choose the moment of use first, then decide what someone should remember or do afterward.
SourceGisou × Cédric Grolet — Translate the product into another sense
Gisou and Cédric Grolet returned with an autumn 2026 collaboration connecting lip-oil flavors and pastries, including Cherry Chocolate. This is distinct from their 2025 collaboration.
A sensory partnership works when the connection is legible. The pastry makes the product idea tangible; the beauty product lets that encounter continue after the visit.
SourceLadurée × Sorbé — Let both partners change the result
Ladurée’s Egyptian site presents a Sorbé by Nour Arida collaboration translating lip-butter flavors into pastries, macarons and a signature drink at selected locations.
The partnership has a visible product expression on both sides. A shared logo is a starting point; a shared sensory idea gives people something more concrete to discuss.
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02 / Give the talent a specific role
Verizon × Chris Briney — Make the payoff worth the wait
Verizon’s “Feel the Love” film casts Chris Briney in a retro love story, with the eventual reveal tied to its Shine rewards program.
A celebrity can pull someone into a story. The brand still needs a reason to be in its ending. This is a useful brief for creators: write the payoff first, then earn the reveal.
SourceReebok × Belmont Cameli — Give the product movement
Reebok’s current Classics creative features Belmont Cameli dancing. The relationship follows earlier ambassador work, rather than introducing a new face from scratch.
Repeat casting can build recognition while movement changes the visual language. For a creator program, consistency should live in the relationship; each execution can still feel different.
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Garnier × Jalen Thomas Brooks — Let the recommendation have a history
Vida Moderna reports that Garnier’s curl campaign with Jalen Thomas Brooks incorporates his mother’s recommendation and voice.
A credible product story needs a specific relationship, habit or context. Ask creators how a product entered their lives before handing them a list of selling points.
SourceValentino Beauty — A fragrance inside a public moment
Mika Abdalla and Josh Heuston attended Valentino’s Paris show on October 4 wearing Born in Roma Rendez-Vous Ruby fragrances, according to US Weekly’s report.
The event gives a fragrance a social setting. The editorial question is whether people can connect that moment back to the actual product, rather than remembering only the couple.
SourceKenneth Cole × Joe Jonas — Use the category’s clichés
Kenneth Cole’s INSPIRE creative with Joe Jonas plays with the conventions of fragrance advertising. The campaign is already running; this briefing does not treat it as an October 8 launch.
Parody needs a recognizable code. A creator can make a familiar category feel fresh by exaggerating its rituals, provided the product remains easy to identify.
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Marc Jacobs — Let the bag have a plot
The Scene campaign, written by and starring Rachel Sennott, turns the bag into part of a Manhattan story. It originated earlier in 2026 and is included here as context.
A product can be a prop with consequences: it changes what happens next. That gives a series more narrative potential than a sequence of unrelated product shots.
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03 / Make the product world legible
Tate McRae × Scent Beauty — From audience to a product world
Tate McRae announced her namesake fragrance brand with Scent Beauty on October 1. The announced Ulta rollout is October 16 online and October 25 in stores.
An existing audience is a starting point. Product positioning, distribution and a repeatable reason to buy must do the rest. Celebrity reach alone cannot answer those questions.
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REFY — Design a pairing people can show
REFY’s limited-edition Shimmer Duo pairs a cream shimmer and a lip gloss in coordinated shades. The product page confirms the set; it does not establish a launch date for this briefing.
A pair gives creators a ready-made demonstration: one look, two steps. Make the use case immediately visible instead of expecting the caption to explain why the bundle exists.
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YSL Beauty — Make a visual world coherent
YSL Beauty’s limited-edition Brewed Reflections collection draws on coffee culture and espresso tones. The Canadian product pages confirm the collection.
A strong creative system gives packaging, tutorials and still life the same vocabulary. Creators then have room to interpret it without losing the campaign’s identity.
SourceBrilliant Earth × House of Taylor — Treat an archive as a living asset
Brilliant Earth’s partnership with House of Taylor connects a fine-jewelry collection to Elizabeth Taylor’s legacy. The debut collection was reported in September.
Archive-led storytelling needs a clear bridge to today’s product. Heritage is most useful when a customer can point to the design decision it informed.
Sourcee.l.f. POP — Launch a place people can imagine
e.l.f. POP launched its Tromsø-inspired Spicy Bundt Nice fragrance and body-care collection in early October, with illustrator Esra Røise and musician SKAAR contributing to its world.
Location can organize a launch across scent, illustration and music. Local collaborators should contribute real creative substance, rather than functioning as a decorative stamp of authenticity.
SourceSKIMS × Ludovic de Saint Sernin — Make the collaborator’s signature visible
The SKIMS collaboration with Ludovic de Saint Sernin brings the designer’s lace-up vocabulary into a bodywear capsule released October 1.
A collaboration should be recognizable before the credit line. Ask what the partner changes about the product, its styling or its use—not just whose audience they bring.
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04 / Connect culture to distribution
American Eagle — Start with a specific community
American Eagle’s back-to-school work used Rush Week and campus-specific creator activity. This is an earlier-season example, not a newly announced October campaign.
“Gen Z” is too broad to brief a local activation. A community has its own calendar, rituals and trusted voices. Build around those specifics and define what participation looks like.
SourceM&S × Sephora — Distribution is part of the story
M&S and Sephora announced a partnership on September 29. The stated plan is a beauty offer in 100 M&S stores and on M&S.com from spring 2027—not an already completed rollout.
A retail partnership changes where discovery can happen. The useful marketing question is how the customer journey will connect across the two brands when the offer actually arrives.
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Bose — A familiar format can solve a current friction
Bose announced USB-C noise-cancelling wired earbuds September 28. Its UK announcement gives an October 15 shipping date. Wired does not mean the product has already shipped.
Nostalgia may attract attention, but utility needs to carry the explanation. A creator demonstration can show exactly which everyday friction a familiar format removes.
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Ninja × Jonathan Bennett — Make the cultural reference do a job
Ninja introduced the pink PREPi system October 2 with Jonathan Bennett in its launch storytelling, close to October 3’s Mean Girls Day.
Timing and casting make the reference legible. The product demonstration still matters: the audience should leave knowing what the object does, not only recognizing the joke.
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What to take into the next brief
Start with one audience and one next action. Specify what the creator contributes: access, a point of view, a useful demonstration or a story people want to follow. Give the product a real job inside that story. Decide where the second encounter happens—retail, a product page, a follow-up video or a community—and make the transition easy.
Measure the behavior the idea was built to create. For an activation, that might mean redemptions or qualified visits; for a series, repeat viewing or return traffic; for a product demonstration, useful clicks or purchase intent research. The examples here do not establish sales lift or ROI. Those require campaign data.
The test for the next concept is simple: can someone describe what they get to do, and why they would want to do it? A strong answer gives both the creative team and the creator something concrete to build.
Turn the next idea into a campaign
Explore our influencer marketing and Creator Factory services, or read the previous campaign briefing.
Holy Marketing works across all of Latin America and the Caribbean, 15 African countries, and the United States. Monthly campaign budgets start at $20,000.
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