Ulta Beauty’s presence at CES signals a deeper shift underway in modern retail.
In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Matt Britton sits down with Kelly Mahoney, chief marketing officer at Ulta Beauty, live from CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Kelly unpacks how Ulta Beauty’s loyalty program and personalization engine drive nearly all sales. They also discuss why motivation-based marketing segmentation has replaced traditional demographics, and how AI-powered personalization in beauty and wellness retail shapes everything from recommendations to creative execution.
The conversation further explores Ulta Beauty’s omnichannel customer journey, its evolving beauty and wellness retail strategy, and how Adobe CDP and Adobe Firefly creative automation support marketing at scale.
With more than 20 years of experience in marketing and strategy, Kelly oversees brand marketing, the Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program, media planning, including the UB Media retail media network, consumer insights, and social and influencer strategy. Over nearly a decade at Ulta Beauty, she has been a key driver of the company’s personalization and growth engine.
Prior to becoming CMO, she served as SVP of customer and growth marketing, leading the rebrand and expansion of Ulta Beauty Rewards to more than 46 million members who generate roughly 95% of sales. Earlier in her career, Kelly held leadership roles at BP and Accenture, building a foundation in analytics, loyalty, and consumer-centric innovation.
Key Takeaways:
[01:26] Why Ulta Beauty Belongs at CES — Kelly makes the case that Ulta Beauty’s presence at CES reflects how modern, tech-forward beauty and wellness brands grow today. At Ulta Beauty, the Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program is the engine behind its data advantage – powering personalization at scale and elevating the guest experience. CES becomes less about gadgets and more about understanding what comes next in relevance, speed, and intelligence. For Kelly, this is where beauty and technology meet: using data responsibly to deepen relationships, anticipate needs, and deliver AI-powered personalization in beauty and wellness retail that feels genuinely helpful rather than automated.
[02:03] Global Expansion and the Beauty–Wellness Strategy — As Ulta Beauty expands globally into the UK, Mexico, Kuwait, and the UAE, Kelly explains that growth is not just geographic. It’s philosophical. Wellness has shifted from a category to a mindset, reshaping how people define beauty, self-care, and daily routines. Ulta Beauty recognized this early, formally expanding into the space in 2021 and evolving the initiative into Wellness by Ulta Beauty – an immersive, education-led platform designed to guide guests through every step of their wellness journey. Ulta Beauty’s response centers on credibility and trust, not trend-chasing. By treating wellness as core to the brand, Ulta Beauty strengthens its beauty and wellness retail strategy, reaching new guests while staying grounded in how people actually live, care for themselves, and express who they are across different life stages.
[05:51] Loyalty at Scale as a Competitive Advantage — Kelly shares how Ulta Beauty’s loyalty ecosystem operates as the heartbeat of the business. With 46+ million members driving approximately 95% of sales, loyalty fuels a continuous feedback loop that improves guest experience, merchandising, and operational focus. First-party data allows Ulta Beauty to listen, learn, and respond in real time. This scale turns the Ulta Beauty personalization strategy for 2026 into daily practice, showing how relevance compounds when loyalty, data, and trust work together over time.
[07:54] From Demographics to Motivation-Based Marketing — Kelly explains why Ulta Beauty moved away from broad age and gender buckets toward motivation-based marketing segmentation. Instead of guessing based on who someone is, the team focuses on how guests actually behave in terms of where discovery happens, what drives replenishment, and how shopping patterns evolve over time. Those signals allow Ulta Beauty to anticipate intent and respond with relevance. The result feels personal rather than programmed, reinforcing trust while strengthening the Ulta Beauty omnichannel customer journey across social, digital, and in-store moments.
[18:38] AI, Creativity, and the Future of Marketing Teams — Kelly describes AI as both an engine and an accelerator inside Ulta Beauty. On one side, AI powers recommendations and personalization through a connected Adobe CDP retail marketing strategy that brings customer data together. On the other, Adobe Firefly creative automation helps teams produce more content, more efficiently, without losing quality or intent. The real advantage, Kelly notes, comes from people who stay curious and adaptable, shaping how AI in retail marketing delivers meaningful impact at scale.
