Tone, the Personal Care Brand Founded by Six Twitch Streamers, Is Entering Target

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a day ago

Is the era of Twitch streamer-founded beauty brands upon us?
If the breakout success of Tone, a unisex personal care brand launched in February by Atlanta-based content group AMP, or Any Means Possible, to the tune of near-instant seven-figure sales is any indication, yes.
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The line, which debuted direct-to-consumer with body lotions, deodorants and lip balms coming in four scent families and each priced under $15, is now entering retail with a nationwide Target foray. As part of the rollout, Tone will add two products — body wash and a body mist, called Cologne — to its assortment.
'Part of the Tone concept was a focus on accessibility, so being in brick-and-mortar where we can tell the story behind the brand and the product in a higher-touch way is important,' said the brand's chief executive officer Nathaniel Weiss, previously president of clean body care brand Nécessaire.
Tone launched in partnership with Night, the media company and talent agency which works with many of AMP's members, who are Kai Cenat, Duke Dennis, Fannum, Agent 00, ImDaviss and ChrisNxtDoor.
Best known for their gaming broadcasts and challenges, the cohort are among Twitch's most prominent content groups and collectively counts tens of millions of followers across members' respective channels. (Cenat has the largest audience with 18.1 million followers on the platform, and anywhere from 1.5 million to 11.3 million views of his most recent, hours-long broadcasts.)
'The depth of connection between the viewer and the creator on Twitch is not like that of any other platform,' Weiss said. 'Being streaming-native is, in some ways, just more intimate — there's this constant, live reaction from the audience in the chat which creates a two-way dialogue; there are also people who subscribe and pay a certain amount each month to watch ad-free — it's very different from other channels.'
AMP has leveraged these strengths in promoting Tone.
The brand was unveiled via a Twitch broadcast, which led to more than 100,000 users being on the Tone website at any given point during the stream, and the Target partnership will similarly be revealed via an antics-filled broadcast.
'We're doing an overnight livestream inside a Target store where the guys will kind of have the run of the place while the store is closed and be able to tell people what's going on with Tone,' said Weiss, adding that 'there will be, as the brand continues to scale, a role for other social platforms, but we want to be where the core audience conversation is — and for most of the guys, that's Twitch.'
The brand's four scent families are Coconut, Fresh, Citrus and Woodland, with the former two being the heroes thus far. Tone's deodorants are aluminum-free and key ingredients in the new body wash include glycerin and citric acid.
'We believe that what gets people excited about this category is how things smell, but also a focus on efficacy — marrying those two and doing it at an accessible price point, we felt, would be a powerful combination,' Weiss said.
As for the core consumer: 'It's very clearly Gen Alpha through Gen Z, ethnically diverse; perhaps one of the things that has been surprising to us is that our consumer has been 35 percent to 40 percent female,' said Weiss, adding that AMP members have some minority female followings, likely contributing to this dynamic, and Tone aims to broaden its reach among consumers of all genders.
The brand will double down on its fragrance-forward approach for upcoming innovations, catering to young consumers' growing interest in scent.
'We're thinking about what other form factors we could put fragrance in that are not your traditional deodorants and body washes, but also aren't eau de toilette and eau de parfum — you'll see some fun stuff from us on that in the next 12 to 18 months — as well as selectively adding to the scent portfolio,' Weiss said. Best of WWD
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