How Essence Cosmetics Brought Beauty Buzz to Campuses

When Essence Cosmetics hit the road for its Call Me Queen Back-to-School College Tour, the goal was clear: generate excitement, distribute product samples, and build real brand love among Gen Z college students — just in time for the busiest social season of the year.

To make it happen, Essence partnered with Home From College to recruit a powerhouse team of student ambassadors across six top campuses. Together, they transformed the tour into a campus-wide moment, creating organic hype, increasing product trial, and turning beauty into a conversation starter during Greek recruitment.

🎓 The Strategy: Make Essence a Must-Have During B2S & Recruitment Week

The campaign was strategically timed around back-to-school season and sorority rush — a critical cultural moment for Gen Z students.

With this in mind, Home From College recruited students from a wide range of backgrounds to:

💖 Promote the Essence tour stop on their campus
📦 Distribute curated samples from the Essence Cosmetics lineup
📢 Drive foot traffic and awareness through grassroots efforts like flyering, word of mouth, and dorm-to-dorm engagement
👑 Create visibility on social with branded #CallMeQueen moments

This wasn’t just a beauty launch — it was a cultural activation embedded into a key student experience.

📍 Campus Tour Highlights

The Call Me Queen Tour visited six high-impact campuses:

• University of Florida

• Louisiana State University

• University of Alabama

• San Diego State University

• University of Georgia

• University of Texas, Austin
  

At each stop, local student ambassadors led the charge — handing out product, building buzz across dorms and Greek life, and hyping up the brand through everyday moments.

🚀 The Results: Student-Driven Buzz Meets National Beauty Brand

Essence Cosmetics’ partnership with Home From College proved the power of peer-to-peer sampling and local relevance.

Across the tour:

💬 1,360+ student interactions with brand ambassadors
🧴 5,200+ Essence samples distributed across 6 campuses
📣 12 hand-selected student leaders from diverse organizations
💗 6 key events executed with campus-specific strategy

Whether it was recruiting excitement outside the bus or chatting with students in chapter houses, the ambassadors helped Essence break through the back-to-school noise and build brand love that lasted beyond the event.

👑 Turning a Tour Into a Cultural Moment

From makeup bags to Instagram stories, Essence Cosmetics became part of students’ routines, group chats, and first-week selfies. With support from Home From College, the brand embedded itself into the culture of recruitment season and made a lasting impression during one of the most socially charged moments of the college calendar.

Want to activate your brand across campuses with the energy and authenticity of Gen Z? Let’s chat.