Day One Agency has perfected the formula for connecting clients to Gen Z

Many of the most popular brands among Gen Z consumers, including e.l.f. Beauty, Converse and Chipotle, have one thing in common: Day One Agency is spearheading their social and creative strategies. The New York-based agency was the powerhouse behind amplifying some of 2024’s buzziest marketing moments, from e.l.f.’s “So Many Dicks” campaign created by Oberland—which called out the lack of diversity in corporate boardrooms—to Chipotle’s viral Halloween costume collection launched with Spirit Halloween. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here The agency’s slew of attention-grabbing campaigns for these existing clients, coupled with new business wins from Linktree, Hot Pockets and a social creative agency-of-record assignment with Canada Goose, boosted its revenue by 15% in 2024 to a reported $52 million. View this post on Instagram A post shared by e.l.f. Cosmetics and Skincare (@elfcosmetics) Day One Agency’s knack for appealing to Gen Z consumers isn’t just due to nearly 25% of its 173-person team being members of the cohort themselves. The agency amplified its youth insights capabilities with a new “Group Chat” initiative that brings together a curated group of adult Gen Zers outside of the ad industry as a kind of on-demand focus group for clients. It also introduced “Day One Creator Studio,” a program that brings creators in house to help produce and edit social content for clients including Chipotle and Converse. Many of the agency’s most successful campaigns last year, however, stemmed from the agency listening directly to Gen Z consumers on social media. Recurring comments referencing “skincare sins” on e.l.f.’s social posts, for instance, inspired a campaign that cast actress and comedian Meg Stalter as “the Sinfluencer” attempting to sway people to sleep in their makeup, skip sunblock and commit other “skin sins.” @elfyeah no one puts the SIN in SkINcare like the Sinfluencer 😈 find the path to skincare salvation (if you’re into that sort of thing) with e.l.f. SKIN Holy Hydration! 💦 SHOP NOW on elfskin.com & the e.l.f. app! 💙 @Megan Stalter #skinsalvation #elfSKIN #eyeslipsface #HolyHydration #nighttimeskincare ♬ original sound - e.l.f. Cosmetics Day One Agency also leaned into the popularity of previous social posts for Chipotle that mocked up costumes based on Chipotle’s napkins, black plastic forks and other items tied to the brand to turn those memes into a real collection of Halloween costumes. The collaboration with Spirit Halloween drove more than 13.1 billion media impressions, while Chipotle’s social content from the campaign amassed nearly 70 million overall impressions and 3.4 million engagements. @chipotle the burrito’s out of the bag 😳shop the full Boorito ‘24 collection with @SpiritHalloween now at link in bio while supplies last #halloween #halloweencostume #spirithalloween ♬ Halloween ・ cute horror song - PeriTune See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here

Day One Agency has perfected the formula for connecting clients to Gen Z

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