About The Marketing Edit, Powered by Rokt
The Marketing Edit, Powered by Rokt is an original video series from The Female Quotient that spotlights bold leaders shaping the future of marketing. Each episode features leaders from the world’s most influential brands sharing the defining decisions, lessons, and leaps that changed the trajectory of their careers. Together with Rokt, The Marketing Edit explores how today’s marketers are unlocking the Transaction Moment™ to build real-time relevance, drive growth, and meet customers in the moments that matter most.
In this episode, Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient, sits down with Kelly Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer at Ulta Beauty, to discuss the evolution of modern marketing leadership, from loyalty to data to discovery, and how Mahoney is redefining beauty authority through personalization and purpose.
A data-driven path to the CMO seat
Kelly Mahoney didn’t follow the traditional route to the CMO role, and that’s exactly what makes her story stand out.
“I grew up in data, personalization, and loyalty,” she says. “And that’s really what the modern CMO profile needs to be.”
Now leading marketing at Ulta Beauty, Mahoney brings a unique blend of data fluency and creative vision to a brand beloved by millions. With more than 45 million loyalty members, who account for 95% of Ulta Beauty’s total sales, she’s sitting on what she calls “a mountain of first-party data.”
That access allows her team to shorten the funnel and deliver true one-to-one engagement.
“If we know what a consumer is interested in, we can show them the right content at the right time, in the right channels,” Mahoney explains. “We can use our owned channels to our advantage and reserve paid media for acquisition and conquest.”
At Ulta Beauty, relevance isn’t just a strategy; it’s the operating model.
The modern marketer speaks data and creativity
When asked what marketers aren’t focusing on enough, Mahoney is quick to respond: comfort with data and marketing technology.
“I think there’s still a reluctance to go deep into data and MarTech,” she says. “But the modern CMO has to understand how to marry data with the consumer—to drive growth and tell great stories.”
She partners closely with Ulta Beauty’s Chief Transformation and Information Officer to ensure marketing decisions are grounded in innovation and empathy. Her approach reflects a new reality for marketing leadership: storytelling now depends on the systems that power it.
Redefining beauty authority through social
In beauty, the conversation never stops, and Mahoney knows where it happens most.
“You can’t have a marketing plan in beauty without talking about social,” she says. “Social and influencer are where we show up, and how we redefine beauty authority.”
Ulta Beauty invests heavily in leveraging these channels with precision. Mahoney focuses on earned media value (EMV) as a leading indicator of success, tracking who’s talking about the brand organically and how that conversation stacks up against competitors.
“It’s a benchmark of relevancy,” she says. “But to get there, you need content. The more content you create, the more the algorithms find your audience.”
Her focus on scaling Ulta Beauty’s “content engine” reflects a broader shift: in today’s landscape, data doesn’t just inform creativity, it fuels it.
Taking smart risks and owning the outcome
Mahoney’s rise wasn’t without risk. She recalls leaving a company where most people stayed for life, a job that came with a pension and security.
“I was just bored,” she says. “I felt like I was young enough to restart. It was really scary, but I knew I had to take the leap.”
As she walked out, an HR colleague warned, “You’re going to regret this.”
She didn’t.
That decision, though risky at the time, set her on a path that led to the CMO role she holds today. It’s a reminder that leadership often means betting on yourself and being comfortable in the unknown.
Why this moment matters
Mahoney’s perspective mirrors a truth shaping every industry: the future of marketing belongs to leaders who can unite art and algorithm. At Ulta Beauty, that means turning first-party data into discovery, making every interaction a reflection of the individual behind it.
As she puts it: “Our customers want to discover beauty in new ways, and that’s what we’re giving them.”
It’s a mindset that aligns with Rokt’s belief that real-time relevance isn’t a tactic, it’s a growth engine. By pairing data with creativity and meeting consumers in the Transaction Moment™, brands like Ulta Beauty are proving that personalization at scale is not only possible, but powerful.
