The ROI of Relevance: How Ulta Builds Meaningful Customer Connections

Introducing the Forbes Social Interview Series, in partnership with Rokt

In today’s attention economy, relevance has become the defining currency of modern marketing. But staying relevant isn’t just about visibility, it requires agility, clarity of purpose, and the discipline to act in real time.

That’s the driving idea behind the Forbes Social Interview Series, a new video-first editorial platform spotlighting how today’s most influential CMOs are rethinking the role of marketing in a world where customer expectations shift by the minute.

Produced in partnership with Rokt—the global leader in ecommerce technology powering real-time relevance in the Transaction Moment™—the series explores how the most forward-thinking brands are aligning data, technology, and brand purpose to turn customer intent into measurable impact.

A Front-Row Seat to the CMO Playbook

Hosted by Seth Matlins, Managing Director of the Forbes CMO Network, each interview features an unfiltered conversation with a senior marketing leader navigating the intersection of growth, brand, and innovation. The tone is candid. The stories are real. And the takeaways are designed for those who make the calls.

Episode One: Kelly Mahoney, CMO of Ulta Beauty

In the premiere episode, Kelly Mahoney shares how Ulta is reframing what relevance looks like, from meaningful storytelling to lifecycle marketing that resonates across generations.

Purpose First: Relevance That Actually Matters

Ulta doesn’t begin with data, it begins with why.

“In order to be relevant, you have to have a purpose that’s meaningful to your customer,” Mahoney explains. That belief anchors Ulta’s brand strategy, guiding everything from campaign development to product curation.

The goal isn’t just promotion, it’s emotional resonance. Ulta builds stories that reflect what its customers value most, and uses those stories to deepen connection, not just drive clicks.

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The Real-Time Shift: From Personalization to Precision

While many marketers focus on personalization, Ulta takes it further, engineering real-time responsiveness into every customer interaction.

In conversation with Forbes’ Seth Matlins, Mahoney details how her team uses live data, contextual triggers, and behavioral signals to meet customers in the moment, with messaging that feels less like marketing, and more like relevance in action.

This isn’t segmentation. It’s precision at scale:

• Messaging that reflects true customer intent
  
  
• Live data powering contextual engagement
  
  
• Two-way brand interactions that evolve with behavior
  
  

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Marketing for Every Life Stage

Ulta’s north star isn’t the next sale, it’s the customer’s next chapter.

From first mascara to redefining self-care in midlife, Ulta aims to be a trusted beauty partner across life stages. Mahoney’s team focuses on building continuity and emotional equity, earning long-term loyalty by staying close to what customers care about now, and what they’ll care about next.

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Relevance, Reimagined

Ulta’s approach underscores a bigger truth: relevance is not a quarterly campaign, it’s a daily operating model.

From anchoring in purpose to adapting in real time, Ulta has built a marketing engine that’s both customer-first and commercially rigorous. The result? Deeper relationships, stronger loyalty, and measurable growth.

The Forbes Social Interview Series is brought to you by Rokt, the global leader in ecommerce, unlocking real-time relevance in the moment that matters most – The Transaction Moment. Rokt’s AI Brain and Ecommerce Network powers billions of transactions connecting hundreds of millions of customers and is trusted to do this by the world's leading companies including Live Nation, Macy’s, AMC Theatres, Uber, Hulu, Staples, Albertsons and HelloFresh. Headquartered in New York City, Rokt has offices across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. To learn more, visit Rokt.com.

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