Inc.
AMP’s creator collective launched Tone, a personal care brand, selling out products in 72 hours with seven-figure revenue. Livestreams on Twitch and YouTube drove massive engagement and buzz among millions of Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers.
How a YouTube Stream Drove 7-Figure Sales in 72 Hours for a Just-Launched Brand
Author: Viktoriia Vasileva
When you tune into an AMP Twitch or YouTube stream, you never know what to expect. One day, all six members of the online creator collective, formed in 2019, come together to throw a massive pool party. On another day, breakout member Kai Cenat is interviewing LeBron James. The only guaranteed appearance is their new personal care brand Tone, which pops in and out of the frame as they use the product on camera, rep the brand’s merch, and pop into Target for a quick restock and an impromptu fan meet-and-greet—generating community engagement and buzz rarely seen in personal care.
Tone launched in February as an independent company, in which AMP—short for any means possible—is a majority shareholder. The media company Night and AMP co-developed the concept as a growing number of young men across the country have embraced fragrance and adopted sophisticated grooming routines. This cultural shift, largely driven by online creators like AMP—comprising long-time high-end cologne collectors and regulars at the nail salon—informed Tone’s overall product and positioning strategy as it contends to compete in the men’s personal care market, which is projected to reach $6.5 billion in the U.S. by 2028, according to market research firm Mintel.
“We were focused on balancing stuff that smells great, stuff that’s efficacious, and [at a] really accessible price point,” says Tone CEO Nathaniel Weiss, who joined the brand from Nécessaire, where he served as president. Currently, Tone carries five products, ranging from $5 lip balms to $20 body mists, which come in four signature scents and colors. According to Weiss, the team’s core conviction is that “fragrance is what drives engagement in personal care,” which they leverage to create products that complement rather than replace young people’s increasingly sophisticated routines.
When it comes to promotion, AMP is focused on maximizing entertainment for its audience. In February, the crew hosted a product launch stream on their joint YouTube channel—which boasts more than 7.5 million subscribers—where they packed, signed, and upgraded Shopify orders that rolled in live alongside a cast of fictional Tone workers running around the AMP house in white jumpsuits and goofy goggles. At any given point during the broadcast, there were more than 100,000 customers browsing Tone website, according to the company. Within 72 hours after the launch, the brand sold out of two products generating seven-figure earnings.
In July, AMP kicked it up a notch with an overnight livestream from their individual Twitch channels—reaching a total of more than 41 million followers—set at a Target location in San Antonio to celebrate Tone’s launch on the retailer’s shelves the following day. Living out the fantasy of getting locked inside a store after hours, they fawned over Tone’s Target stand, and put on a playful performance for 200,000 concurrent viewers.
The level of trust, interactivity, and community engagement between AMP members and their Twitch audience is unprecedented, says AMP COO Hoss Sooudi. “People are used to YouTuber products and celebrity products and things like that,” he says. “But when was the last time that anyone engaged with Kim Kardashian for five straight hours? And did that four days a week?” There are no advanced e-commerce integrations or shopping features involved in AMP livestreams—only 20,000 to 150,000 people watching concurrently and sending chat messages for hours on end. It creates a “steady drumbeat of integration” that is much more organic and effective than posting and directing customers to a link on any other platform, Weiss adds.
As part of the brand’s launch and Target partnership announcements, AMP also put out high-budget videos on Instagram, designed to excite their audience the way studio trailers get them pumped for an action blockbuster premier. Sooudi explains that since the crew is “perpetually online,” the difference in production value helps them communicate the importance of these moments and show their commitment to both the business and the audience. They are entertaining to watch—first and for most—regardless of whether or not viewers “give a sh*t” about Tone or AMP, he adds.
While Twitch and YouTube content are the foundation of Tone’s marketing efforts, it also gets distribution from both the Tone team of five and members of the AMP community who cut these much longer videos into short clips that can reach up to 15 million views on TikTok, Instagram, and X. Although AMP and Tone are not in a hurry to expand their influence across platforms and mediums, they “plan to be everywhere at some point,” Sooudi confirms.
Tone’s ultimate goal is to transcend market segments too. “We’ve originally positioned this brand in the men’s market,” says Weiss. “[But] we’ve actually seen that 35 to 40 percent of our customers are women.” A couple of Tone’s products, like premium lip balms and body mists, already take inspiration from bestsellers in the women’s market, where brands, like Rhode and Sol De Janeiro, are leading the trend – except Tone offers its products at comparatively lower price points.
Currently, if you search “Tone by AMP” on TikTok, most of the videos that come up are organic product reviews posted by Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha users of all genders. As Sooudi puts it, the brand is built by and for a generation for whom “looking good and smelling good is never gender specific.” For Tone, developing products that double down on this message and promoting them through the channels that young people are most engaged with is an opportunity to not only build a successful venture, but to also fill the widening gap in the heavily gendered personal care space.
Credits: TCA, LLC.