In a beauty market where authenticity matters as much as performance, KISS Colors & Care is betting on earned media and cultural storytelling to fuel its next phase of growth. The textured hair care brand has named 5WPR—one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the U.S.—as its Agency of Record, tasking the firm with elevating brand visibility, cultural relevance, and retail momentum.

The move reflects a broader shift in beauty and consumer brands toward PR strategies that do more than launch products. Increasingly, brands are using earned media to build trust, sustain community engagement, and reinforce category leadership—especially in culturally rooted segments like textured hair.

Why this partnership matters now

Textured hair care is one of the most competitive and culturally nuanced categories in beauty. While the market continues to grow, consumers are quick to spot brands that treat texture as a trend rather than a lived experience. That reality puts pressure on marketing teams to align messaging, media presence, and community engagement with real credibility.

For KISS Colors & Care, which has more than 30 years of heritage serving coily, curly, and wavy hair consumers, the partnership with 5WPR is designed to ensure its story keeps pace with its expanding footprint.

Rather than focusing solely on product launches, the engagement emphasizes strategic storytelling, high-impact earned media, and media-driven brand moments—all aimed at supporting long-term growth across hair care, color, and accessories.

A PR-led approach to brand and retail growth

As Agency of Record, 5WPR will lead KISS Colors & Care’s earned media strategy across beauty, lifestyle, and trade outlets, with a mandate that extends beyond visibility.

According to the companies, the agency will focus on:

• Driving product discovery through earned media

• Building stylist advocacy and spokesperson visibility

• Developing media-forward events and strategic partnerships

• Supporting awards initiatives that highlight category leadership

Critically, these efforts will be aligned with retail priorities and timelines, reflecting how PR is increasingly expected to support sell-through, not just awareness. In today’s omnichannel beauty environment, earned media often plays a key role in shaping retailer confidence and influencing purchase decisions before a consumer ever reaches the shelf.

From launches to lived experience

For KISS Colors & Care, the partnership is as much about narrative as it is about scale. The brand has consistently positioned itself around accessible, high-performing solutions for textured hair—but leadership says the next chapter requires deeper cultural resonance.

“As KISS Colors & Care continues to evolve, we’re excited to partner with 5WPR to help bring our brand story to life in new and meaningful ways,” said Karonda Cook, Head of Global Marketing at KISS Colors & Care. “This partnership allows us to engage consumers with greater intention and authenticity, extending beyond product launches to honor textured hair not as a trend, but as a lived experience and powerful form of self-expression.”

That distinction matters in a category where consumers expect brands to reflect their realities—not simply market to them. It also raises the bar for PR execution, shifting the focus from coverage volume to cultural impact.

The growing role of earned media in beauty marketing

The appointment comes at a time when beauty brands are re-evaluating how they allocate marketing budgets. With paid social becoming more expensive and less predictable, earned media is regaining strategic importance—particularly for brands seeking credibility and longevity.

For textured hair brands, earned media plays an outsized role. Coverage in trusted beauty, lifestyle, and trade publications often serves as third-party validation, influencing not just consumers but also stylists, retailers, and industry gatekeepers.

By integrating PR tightly into its go-to-market strategy, KISS Colors & Care is aligning with a growing industry trend: treating communications as a growth engine, not a support function.

What 5WPR brings to the table

5WPR’s scale and experience across consumer, lifestyle, and retail-focused brands position it well for this type of mandate. The firm’s role will include shaping media narratives that balance innovation, performance, and cultural relevance, while ensuring consistent visibility across key moments throughout the year.

In practice, that means fewer one-off announcements and more sustained storytelling—an approach increasingly favored by brands looking to build equity over time rather than chase short-term buzz.

The partnership also underscores the continued relevance of independent agencies in a landscape dominated by holding companies. For brands like KISS Colors & Care, independence can translate into closer collaboration, faster decision-making, and a more tailored approach to category-specific challenges.

Implications for the textured hair category

Beyond the two companies involved, the deal highlights how competitive the textured hair space has become. As more brands enter the market, differentiation hinges less on claims and more on credibility, consistency, and cultural fluency.

PR strategies that connect innovation to real consumer experiences—and do so across earned channels—are increasingly central to that differentiation. For established brands, the challenge is staying relevant without losing authenticity. For newer entrants, it’s proving they belong.

KISS Colors & Care’s decision to invest in a comprehensive earned media strategy suggests that even heritage brands see PR as essential to staying competitive in a fast-evolving beauty landscape.

The bigger picture

At its core, the 5WPR–KISS Colors & Care partnership reflects a simple truth: in culturally driven categories, growth depends on trust as much as reach. Earned media, when done well, sits at the intersection of both.

As beauty brands continue to navigate shifting consumer expectations, retailer dynamics, and rising acquisition costs, partnerships like this point to a future where PR is fully embedded in brand strategy—not layered on after the fact.

For KISS Colors & Care, the next phase isn’t just about expanding distribution or launching new products. It’s about reinforcing leadership in textured hair by showing up consistently, authentically, and with intention—everywhere the conversation happens.

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