European Wax Center Leans on Digital Ads-Will It Pay Off?

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) pivots to a digital-first strategy, with encouraging trends in new guest acquisition. Leveraging data-rich insights and improved measurement tools, the company is precisely optimizing its marketing spend. EWCZ has adopted an advertising platform that allows it to directly link media impressions with guest behavior, leading to a highly efficient marketing and lower customer acquisition costs.The company is shifting away from traditional marketing methods to a modern data-rich, digital-first marketing engine with a compelling brand identity. EWCZ’s marketing team is delivering near-term gains, positioning it for sustainable growth. European Wax Center is making smart use of data alongside harnessing its partnership with digital and social media platforms to boost performance and reach. It is on track with a new champion ad to go live for the peak summer waxing season.Through its performance-based partnership with Dolabra Digital, EWCZ is centralizing key marketing functions in-house, fortifying its data infrastructure and consolidating vendor relationships, designed to optimize media investments and deliver solid ROI in 2025. The company is prioritizing higher-value, more loyal guest segments with brand messaging and creative tests while seeing early signs of traction with new guests. On a two-year basis, new guest trends have shown consistent monthly improvement in 2025, reinforcing EWCZ’s confidence in its growth strategy.European Wax Center is incorporating advanced measurement tools to track ad effectiveness. With a stable core guest base, the company is now scaling engagement with non-core guests via enhanced email and SMS strategies to unlock opportunities for higher visit frequency and boost overall revenues.EWCZ’s CompetitionThe Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (EL) and Coty Inc. (COTY) are the key companies competing with European Wax Center.The Estée Lauder Companies has a strong online business, which is likely to be a major growth engine. The Estée Lauder Companies has partnered with Adobe to enhance its digital marketing efforts using Adobe Firefly, a generative AI tool. The company is enhancing its technology and digital capabilities, including online booking for each store appointment, omnichannel loyalty programs and high-touch mobile services. Marketing campaigns across digital platforms require a wide variety of assets in multiple formats, including text, images, shopping ads and app promotions to boost engagement with diverse audiences.Coty prioritizes digital and influencer-led marketing as core pillars of its brand strategy, reflecting a strategic move toward personalized and engagement-focused campaigns. The company deploys a major share of its media budget to digital platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, BeReal and Threads. Coty integrates AI and personalization to enhance online shopping experiences. Coty invested in first-party data infrastructure to gain deeper insights into customer preferences and deliver personalized marketing.EWCZ’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of European Wax Center have lost 24.1% year to date compared with the industry’s drop of 0.9%.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchFrom a valuation standpoint, EWCZ trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 9.55X compared with the industry’s average of 26.61X.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for EWCZ’s fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 earnings per share (EPS) implies year-over-year growth of 35.6% and 8.2%, respectively. The company’s EPS estimate for fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 has been stable in the past 30 days.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchEuropean Wax Center stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in the coming year. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +112%, +171%, +209% and +232%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (EL): Free Stock Analysis Report Coty (COTY): Free Stock Analysis Report European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks