ChapStick hired Croud and Born Social

2025 · Lip care / personal care

ChapStick is a legacy lip balm brand trying to matter to Gen Z, having last leaned on celebrities in the 1990s.

On the public record

The problem is documented by somebody with nothing to gain from the agency winning the work.

How we know

Adweek's own framing is that the agencies were hired to revive the brand for Gen Z. The winning argument is quoted too: "That it was integrated from a media, influencer, and creative perspective, but underpinned by measurement, was the hook that won it."

Who says so	Adweek, independent. Unusually complete on process: the pitch opened in April, ChapStick chose within a couple of weeks, no consultancy was involved, work began in late August. Read it
A second source	ContentGrip covered the same appointment on 2 September 2025 with the same facts, the April pitch, the few week decision, the absence of a consultancy, the creative plus influencer plus media remit, and it adds the Born Social managing director quote and the first campaigns expected in Q4. It reads as a write-up of the Adweek reporting rather than independent newsgathering.
What the agency was asked to do	Not published as a quoted brief. On record: manage ChapStick's US social media business, with a remit spanning creative, influencer and media planning, as full-service social agencies of record.
How the agency was picked	Competitive pitch
How that happened	A competitive review with multiple agencies, run by the brand itself and NOT through a search consultancy, which Adweek states plainly. The pitch opened in April 2025 and ChapStick picked inside a couple of weeks, per Croud's chief business officer. Work started in late August.
How long it took	Pitch opened April 2025, decision inside a couple of weeks, work formally kicked off the week before the 26 August 2025 story, first campaigns expected Q4 2025. One of the few rows on this sheet with the full cycle published.
Recorded as	ChapStick (Suave Brands Co., Yellow Wood Partners)

Watch out for: Two agencies share the account and neither outlet splits who does what, so do not credit either alone with the influencer work. Every quote comes from the agency side, not the brand: no ChapStick executive is named or quoted anywhere in either piece. The InfluencerGPT capability is Croud describing its own tool.

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Every case here carries the one link that proves it, and names who said it. Where that is the agency describing its own win, the card says so rather than hiding it. Cases where nobody ever documented a reason are not on this page at all. Brought to you by Influencer Advisory, your influencer marketing partner for supplement, health and beverage brands.