Color e.l.f.nalysis & the Playbook for a New Era of AI Brand Collaborations

At Cannes Lions 2025, e.l.f. Cosmetics and Pinterest unveiled “color e.l.f.nalysis,” an AI-powered beauty tool that’s both creative and practical. It’s a striking example of how brands can partner with tech platforms to deliver personalized experiences at scale. In this deep dive, we’ll explore why the e.l.f. × Pinterest collaboration worked – from brand fit to consumer insight – and extract key principles for any brand considering an AI-driven partnership. We’ll then look at other recent AI-powered brand collaborations (across beauty, pet care, retail, and tech) that follow these principles, signaling an emerging pattern. Finally, we’ll outline a practical framework – an “algorithm” – for brand and innovation leaders to design authentic, high-impact AI collaborations of their own.

Inside the e.l.f. × Pinterest “color e.l.f.nalysis” Collaboration

“Color e.l.f.nalysis” is an AI-driven tool that lets users upload a selfie to get personalized color-palette advice and product recommendations on Pinterest. E.l.f. Cosmetics (the buzzworthy beauty brand) partnered with Pinterest (the visual discovery and shopping platform) to capitalize on the viral trend of personal color analysis. The campaign’s microsite, named color e.l.f.nalysis, uses artificial intelligence to analyze a user’s selfie and determine their ideal color “season.” It assesses the photo for hue (warm vs. cool tone), value (light vs. deep), and chroma (bright vs. muted), then classifies the user into a color season like “Soft Autumn” or “Cool Winter.” From there, it auto-generates a custom Pinterest board filled with e.l.f. product suggestions (e.g., a peach blush or denim-blue eyeliner for a Soft Autumn season). With one click, users can shop those curated items via Pinterest Pins, seamlessly moving from inspiration to purchase.

This activation smartly rides a social-media craze. Seasonal color analysis – popularized decades ago by the book Color Me Beautiful – made a comeback on TikTok in 2023. In fact, Pinterest reported a 22X surge in searches for “color season analysis” over the past year, alongside 1.6 billion beauty-related searches on the platform. E.l.f. recognized that young beauty consumers were already obsessing over finding their colors; the brand brought real utility to that craze by removing the guesswork and offering instant, AI-driven guidance. “It’s clear consumers are craving personalized beauty experiences,” noted Pinterest’s CPG VP Katie Dombrowski – and this tool delivers exactly that.

Critically, the execution felt natural to users. Instead of a standalone app, e.l.f. met consumers where they already search for looks: Pinterest. “We know Pinners aren’t just pinning – they’re shopping,” said e.l.f.’s Chief Integrated Marketing Officer, citing that 85% of weekly Pinterest users have bought something they discovered on a Pin. Pinterest’s platform was the perfect fit to host the experience, given its influence on style trends and purchasing. The collaboration also enlisted popular Pinterest creators to produce content showcasing the tool, lending authenticity and reach. By launching color e.l.f.nalysis at Pinterest’s own “Manifestival” event during Cannes Lions and featuring it in a beachside pop-up, the partnership generated industry buzz and consumer engagement in equal measure.

Why the e.l.f. × Pinterest AI Partnership Worked

Authentic Brand & Platform Fit: The collaboration made strategic sense. E.l.f. is a digitally savvy cosmetics brand known for riding social trends, and Pinterest is a hub for style inspiration and shopping. The overlap in audience and ethos was strong – both cater to trend-driven, creative consumers. Pinterest’s data showed users were actively searching for makeup ideas and color analysis, making it a natural home for e.l.f.’s tool. This brand-platform fit meant the activation felt organic, not forced.

Solving a Real "Job to Be Done": The partnership pinpointed a genuine consumer need: help me find which colors flatter me and what products to buy. Instead of using AI for gimmickry, e.l.f. and Pinterest applied it to remove friction in the shopper’s journey. Young consumers were already doing DIY color analysis via TikTok filters and random apps; e.l.f.’s tool simply did the job better. It delivered a personalized solution (your unique palette and matching products) in seconds – saving users time and uncertainty in choosing makeup.

Creative + Utility in Execution: Color e.l.f.nalysis strikes a balance between being fun/engaging and practically useful. The experience feels like a playful quiz or filter, yet it yields tangible value – a curated Pinterest board tailored to you. The name itself is a punny, on-brand twist (blending “e.l.f.” into “analysis”), underlining the creative branding. But beneath the whimsy is solid utility: the AI recommendations drive product discovery and make it easier to shop looks you’ll love.

Deeper Consumer Insight: This collaboration was rooted in insight about its target audience. It recognized the craving for personalization in beauty and the viral nature of sharing one’s “season.” It also tapped into how Gen Z and Millennials use social platforms for purchase inspiration (treating Pinterest like a visual shopping catalogue). By embedding shopping into a trend, e.l.f. met consumers’ emotional desire to feel uniquely understood and their practical desire to find what works for them. The result is an experience that resonates on a personal level – users feel seen by the brand’s AI – which builds brand love and loyalty.

Mutual Value and Impact: Finally, the partnership delivered wins on both sides (and for consumers). Shoppers get a free, handy tool and personalized recommendations. E.l.f. gains a new way to drive product sales and collect first-party data on consumer color preferences. Pinterest demonstrates its chops as a shopping platform, not just a mood-board site, helping it attract more ad dollars. Early signals show strong engagement, and by curating only e.l.f. products, the brand ensures that any resulting purchase flows through its portfolio. Even without public ROI numbers yet (the initiative is brand-new), the qualitative impact is clear: e.l.f. is now seen as an innovator in beauty tech, and Pinterest strengthened its position as the go-to for personalized inspiration.

Principles for Successful AI-Powered Brand Collaborations

1. Start with Fit – Align Brand, Partner, and Audience: Look for partnerships where each party’s brand and users naturally complement each other. A great collab feels believable. Ask: Does this tech/platform amplify our brand’s mission or customer experience? Ensure the collaboration will enhance, not dilute, what your brand stands for.

2. Solve a Real Consumer Job (Don’t Force the Tech): Begin with a concrete customer problem or desire, then see how AI can uniquely solve it. Avoid using AI as a shiny object; use it as a tool to deliver something meaningfully better for the user (faster, easier, more personalized, more fun, etc.).

3. Blend Creative Inspiration with Utility: An AI partnership should produce something engaging and useful. Pure utility with no imagination won’t inspire engagement, and a flashy gimmick with no substance won’t sustain it. Strive for that sweet spot: creative innovation that also makes life easier.

4. Keep It Authentic and User-Centric: Introduce AI in a way that feels authentic to your brand voice and customer’s routines. If the experience is too complicated, too “techy,” or doesn’t feel credible coming from your brand, consumers will tune out (or worse, push back). Authenticity also means being transparent and ethical with AI use. (Notably, when one retailer created an AI-generated ad using their late founder’s likeness, it faced creative-community backlash – a reminder to use AI thoughtfully.)

By evaluating any potential AI initiative against these principles – Fit, Need, Creativity + Utility, Authenticity – brand leaders can better predict which collaborations will genuinely land with consumers.

AI Collaborations in Action: 4 Recent Examples to Watch

This emerging playbook isn’t theoretical – many brands have already begun to apply it. Below are four AI-powered brand collaborations from the past year that echo the same principles as e.l.f. × Pinterest, each in a different industry. Together, they show a clear pattern of how brands are partnering with AI to create value:

Pedigree’s “Adoptable” – Giving Shelter Dogs a Glow-Up with AI

Pedigree’s “Adoptable” campaign uses AI to turn low-quality shelter-dog photos into eye-catching ads, helping more dogs get adopted.

Pedigree, the pet-food brand owned by Mars Inc., partnered with creative-tech studio Nexus Studios to tackle a heartfelt consumer (and societal) job: finding homes for shelter dogs. The Adoptable initiative uses proprietary AI to transform the dim, often unflattering photos taken by animal shelters into professional-quality portraits of each adoptable dog. These enhanced images are then automatically integrated into local digital ads – if you’re in the same area as “Bella” the rescue dog, you might see her lovely new photo in an ad encouraging you to adopt. Crucially, the system updates in real-time: once a dog is adopted, the ads featuring that pup stop running, so the campaign stays relevant.

This collaboration nailed brand fit and purpose: Pedigree has long promoted pet adoption, so using AI to boost adoption rates aligns 100% with its mission. It clearly solved a real problem – shelter dogs often don’t get adopted because their pictures don’t do them justice. By giving dogs a “digital makeover,” Pedigree dramatically shortened average adoption times. In fact, within two weeks of launch, half of the featured dogs in the pilot market were adopted. Talk about impact! The campaign, which started in New Zealand and is rolling out globally, earned rave reviews and even won a Cannes Lions Grand Prix for its innovative approach. Adoptable illustrates that AI collaborations don’t have to be gimmicky; they can be deeply human and authentic, enhancing a brand’s social impact while engaging consumers (who wouldn’t love seeing a cute dog in their feed, knowing that ad might save its life?).

Toys“R”Us × OpenAI – Rebooting a Brand Story with Generative Video

Toys“R”Us, the iconic toy retailer, teamed up with OpenAI’s experimental video-generation tool (codenamed “Sora”) to produce a one-of-a-kind brand film. In mid-2024, Toys“R”Us Studios and agency Native Foreign created what they called the first-ever AI-generated brand-origin story. The one-minute film – which premiered at Cannes Lions 2024 – depicts founder Charles Lazarus dreaming up the Toys“R”Us concept and its giraffe mascot, all brought to life through AI-generated, photo-realistic visuals. Using OpenAI’s Sora, the team went from concept to final video in just a few weeks (a fraction of typical production time).

For a beloved brand staging a comeback, this collaboration checked the fit box: Toys“R”Us leveraged cutting-edge tech to signal it’s not stuck in the past. The job to be done was telling its brand story to a new generation, and AI helped do that in a fresh, attention-grabbing way. The execution balanced creativity and utility – using AI video for speed and visual flair, while ensuring the narrative (a founder’s dream) was emotionally resonant and on-brand. The move wasn’t without controversy – some in the creative community were uneasy about AI’s role in making ads – but a Toys“R”Us executive called the AI film “successful,” noting it achieved its goals of fast turnaround and high quality.

The lesson here is to innovate authentically: Toys“R”Us succeeded because the AI usage felt relevant (a company reinventing itself through innovative storytelling). And by explicitly partnering with OpenAI, they underscored credibility in how the tech was applied. This example shows a heritage brand using AI collaboration to reinvent its marketing and generate buzz as it reopens stores.

Motorola "Styled by Moto" – Fusing Tech and Fashion Through AI

When Motorola launched its new Razr 50 foldable smartphones, it didn’t just run a standard tech-ad campaign – it created an AI-powered fashion show. In late 2024, Motorola partnered with French agency Heaven to produce “Styled With Moto,” an advertising campaign where every outfit and model was AI-generated. The team used a suite of generative-AI tools (Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, and more) to design couture looks inspired by Motorola’s batwing logo and the vibrant colors of the new phones. They then rendered these outfits on virtual models strutting down imaginary runways in a 30-second video, complete with an AI-composed soundtrack remixing the classic “Hello Moto” jingle.

In a savvy launch event, Motorola even showcased physical prototypes of an AI-designed “Motorola Dress” and displayed AI-generated portraits of attendees in Moto-inspired fashion. This collaboration brilliantly aligned with Motorola’s brand strategy: position the Razr not just as a gadget, but as a style statement. By blending technology and high fashion, Motorola spoke to a trend-savvy audience that cares about aesthetics as much as specs.

The job to be done was to re-energize a legacy phone line (Razr) and appeal to style-conscious consumers – an AI-fashion collab was a novel solution to that. It delivered on creative flair (the imagery was futuristic and artful) and utility (showcasing the phone’s design and AI capabilities in the product itself). Importantly, Motorola handled the AI aspect authentically: they were transparent about using many AI tools and even addressed the controversy around AI in creative fields, ensuring they had human creatives directing the project and influencers amplifying it. The result was a campaign that positioned Motorola as an innovator at the intersection of tech and culture. It garnered significant attention on social media and press, helping reshape the brand’s image for modern consumers. Styled by Moto underscores that an AI collaboration can be as much about PR impact and brand perception as immediate sales – it set Motorola apart from competitors by doing something daring and different, yet aligned with its tech heritage.

GE Appliances × Instacart – Turning Every Oven Into a Shoppable Sous-Chef

GE Appliances is transforming the humble kitchen into an AI command center, teaming with Instacart and Google Cloud to make meal planning, cooking, and grocery fulfillment almost automatic. Building on its SmartHQ ecosystem, GE Appliances unveiled Flavorly AI, a generative-AI feature that scans photos of what’s in your fridge (or handwritten recipes) and instantly suggests custom meals. In January 2025, the company announced that Flavorly now taps Google Cloud’s Gemini models for recipe generation and connects directly to Instacart’s new Developer Platform. The result: a single tap on your wall-oven screen (or phone) populates an Instacart cart with any missing ingredients, ready for same-day delivery from more than 85,000 partner stores.

This collaboration nails the “fit and purpose” test. GE Appliances owns the hardware in millions of kitchens; Instacart owns the last-mile grocery relationship; Google Cloud supplies the AI horsepower. Each brand amplifies the others, as no one brand could deliver the full experience alone. The consumer job to be done is crystal clear: Help me decide what to cook with what I have, then get what I don’t have, fast. By reducing meal-planning friction and food waste, the partnership provides real utility, far beyond a novelty recipe chatbot.

For GE Appliances, the move turns a one-time appliance sale into an ongoing service relationship, generating usage data and opportunities to upsell accessories or maintenance plans. Instacart gains high-intent orders originating right at the moment of dinner inspiration, increasing basket size and frequency. Google Cloud showcases real-world impact for its generative-AI suite. And consumers? They save time, eat better, and feel like every appliance just got smarter overnight.

The implications for leaders are profound: durable-goods companies can extend lifetime value by layering AI services and high-frequency commerce partners onto their core products. The lesson isn’t to build a closed ecosystem, but to orchestrate one, pairing hardware heritage with platforms that already own daily behavior. In short, GE Appliances × Instacart proves that when AI, commerce, and connected devices converge around a real consumer need, even a century-old appliance brand can cook up a future-ready growth engine.

Conclusion: The Brand + AI Collaboration Algorithm

It’s inspiring to see how brands from beauty to pet care to toys to home appliances are harnessing AI partnerships to delight customers in new ways. But success isn’t about copying what others did – it’s about applying the principles behind these wins to your own context. To that end, here’s a practical mental model – an algorithm – for designing AI-powered collaborations that are both creative and credible:

1. Identify Brand Opportunity + User Need: Blend your brand’s DNA, assets, or pain points with a real job your customer needs done. Hunt for the spot where AI can truly elevate the experience or solve the problem. If you can’t name a clear need, pause; don’t wedge AI in just because it’s trendy.

2. Evaluate Partner / Tech Fit: List the AI tools or partners that could help. Ask: Do they reach our audience? Do they fill capability gaps? Choose collaborators who complement your strengths and boost credibility. The whole should be greater than the parts.

3. Design for Delight + Utility: Ideate with equal parts creativity and function. The concept must make customers say “Wow, that’s cool” and “That really helped me.” Personalization, surprise, and entertainment should sit alongside time saved, guidance given, or friction removed, value that’s shareable and useful.

4. Prototype, Test, Refine: Build a lean pilot and hand it to real users. Is it intuitive, enjoyable, trustworthy? Use their feedback to tune tone, UX, and ethics. If it feels impersonal or clunky, fix it before launch. Keep the human at the center.

5. Launch, Learn, Iterate: Ship with appropriate fanfare, then track what matters: engagement, satisfaction, conversion, etc. Collect anecdotes as well as data. Improve what works; cut what doesn’t. The goal is a living collaboration that advances your brand purpose and keeps rewarding customers.

By following this algorithm, brand and innovation leaders can approach AI collaborations not as one-off distractions but as strategic extensions of their brand promise. The overarching theme from all these examples is clear: when you fuse genuine consumer insight with the power of AI – and execute in an authentic, brand-right way – you get more than a cool campaign. You create new value. That value might be a more personalized shopping journey, a faster path to a solution, or an emotional connection strengthened by an innovative experience. In a world where technology is accelerating, the brands that succeed will be those who reimagine what’s possible with AI while keeping human needs and creativity front and center. That’s the real color of innovation – and it looks great on everyone.