Tubi and e.l.f. grew by serving audiences incumbents overlooked

Host Bob Safian sees a shared approach in Tubi and e.l.f. Beauty: both have served customers overlooked by incumbents and attracted a wider audience in the process. Anjali Sud and Kory Marchisotto say the goal is to challenge convention in a way that serves those customers.

Sud says many consumers assume free streaming means low-quality content or a poor experience. Tubi’s challenge has been to show that an advertising-supported service can offer Hollywood, creator and original content without charging viewers.

Marchisotto describes e.l.f.’s aim as making products accessible at affordable prices. Her four-part approach is to identify overlooked consumers, challenge category conventions, scale in the gap between what people want and what is available, and open a path for others.

Safian asks whether the Super Bowl builds scale or demonstrates it. Sud says it did both for Tubi: a distinctive advertisement reached potential viewers, while free streaming of the game showed that a premium live event could be available without a subscription.

Marchisotto says e.l.f. saw women in the Super Bowl audience but few advertisements addressed them. Its campaigns centered Jennifer Coolidge and later Judge Judy, using prominent older women to signal that the brand saw an underserved audience.

She calls direct contact with customers “zero distance.” On a TikTok Live with CEO Tarang Amin, viewers asked for bronzing drops; she says the company accelerated the product’s launch from a planned 12–18 months to six months.

When e.l.f. asked its community what else it wanted, career advice and financial literacy came up. Marchisotto says a financial-literacy livestream with CFO Mandy Fields drew 110,000 viewers, extending the relationship beyond beauty products.

Sud says Tubi uses fan conversations to inform programming and also gives creators a route to tell their own stories. She cites creator Noah Beck’s Tubi franchise Sideline, whose fans shared clips and helped it reach 20 million views.

Although Tubi is part of Fox and reports more than a billion dollars in revenue and profitability, Sud says it tries to retain a challenger mindset. Fox partnerships also enabled access to sports programming, including the Super Bowl and World Cup-related content.

Safian asks about e.l.f.’s “So Many Dicks” campaign on boardroom representation. Marchisotto says the company examined thousands of public-company boards and found its own combination of a female majority and substantial diversity was rare. The campaign used the comparison to draw attention to the gap.

Marchisotto argues that a variety of perspectives can change business outcomes, pointing to e.l.f.’s growth. Sud agrees that representation matters for the ability to make decisions and succeed, not only as a symbolic goal.

On AI, Sud says Tubi has long used machine learning for personalization and sees opportunities to reduce the time viewers spend searching. She also sees tools lowering the cost of producing stories, while making distribution and audience discovery more important as content grows.

Marchisotto describes e.l.f.’s AI approach as human-centered, with AI supporting people. She closes by calling for more support for women CEOs and more women in those positions.