Ulta, Loyalty, and the Cost of Not Listening

What Ulta Beauty World Revealed About the Future of Beauty Events

The rollout of Ulta Beauty World should have been a win. Instead, it became a public lesson in what happens when brands mistake visibility for connection.

For months, excitement around Ulta Beauty World lived everywhere beauty conversations thrive. TikTok. Instagram. Group chats. Customers were waiting. Anticipating. Planning. The buzz was undeniable, especially as Ulta announced new in-store partnerships with brands like Amika and Rare Beauty, signaling a strategic move to capture customers who were already vocal about leaving Sephora for what they described as a more accessible, more enjoyable Ulta experience.

The audience was primed.
The demand was obvious.
And still, the execution missed the mark.

When tickets finally dropped, Ulta underestimated interest, limited access, and prioritized influencers over the very loyalty members who fund the business year after year. That decision undercut the entire premise of a loyalty program.

If customers are spending thousands annually, what exactly is their loyalty buying them?

This wasn’t a technology issue.
It was a listening issue.

Where Ulta Went Wrong

Beauty brands often confuse exclusivity with restriction. Ulta Beauty World capped attendance at roughly 3,000 tickets, a number that never matched the demand already visible on social platforms. There is a time for intimacy and exclusivity.

This was not it.

Worse, prioritizing influencer access over top-tier loyalty members sent a clear message. Engagement mattered more than the relationship. Reach mattered more than retention.

Loyalty programs are not about early access to discounts. They are about recognition. They are about making customers feel seen, valued, and rewarded for choosing your brand again and again.

When that breaks, trust erodes.

How This Should Have Been Handled

If Triple Eight Creative were designing this experience, the strategy would have been clear.

This should have been a multi-day activation. Two smaller, curated days followed by one larger flagship moment. The demand warranted it. The audience signaled it early.

Influencers would not have been the priority. Beauty professionals would have. Artists, educators, and working experts create deeper product understanding and longer-term loyalty than influencer content ever could. Education drives retention.

Demonstration builds trust.

Top-tier Ulta loyalty members based on annual spend would have received personal outreach offering complimentary or deeply discounted access. Mid-tier members would have received tiered pricing tied directly to their engagement. This reinforces the value of loyalty and incentivizes future spend with purpose.

Tickets would have been released in structured intervals to protect the site, manage demand, and reduce frustration. Every touchpoint would reinforce the message that loyalty means something here.

This is how moments become ecosystems.

What This Means for the Industry

Ulta is not alone in this misstep. Across beauty, brands continue to prioritize optics over experience, hype over care, and virality over value. Customers are telling us what they want. They want access that feels earned. Education that feels empowering. Events that make them feel like insiders, not afterthoughts.

The demand is there. The spending is there. The appetite for real connection is there.

What’s missing is structure.

Where Triple Eight Creative Comes In

This is exactly why Triple Eight Creative exists.

We design beauty experiences that convert because they are built around real people, not vanity metrics.

Through our 888 partnerships, we create events and activations that prioritize education, community, and clarity. We help brands turn attention into loyalty and loyalty into revenue.

If you are a brand looking to host experiences that actually deepen connection, convert customers, and honor the people who consistently show up for you, this is the work we do.

And if you are a beauty professional or client who wants access to those moments first, the Inner Circle is your entry point.

The future of beauty isn’t louder.
It’s smarter.

And it starts with listening.

Inner Circle Note

Inner Circle members receive early access to select events, behind-the-scenes insight into how experiences are built, and opportunities to engage with brands in ways that feel intentional and rewarding.

This is not about hype.
This is about building beauty that lasts.