New Media Trends: e.l.f. Cosmetics launches on Twitch

10-May-2021 - Last updated on 10-May-2021 at 16:27 GMT

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The vegan makeup and skin care brand has created its own channel on the livestreaming platform and began streaming over the weekend.

“With the launch of the e.l.f. Twitch channel, e.l.f. is ready to take its gaming and content strategy to the next level, by celebrating female gamers and connecting with consumers in an engaging and meaningful way,” Travis Johnson, Global CEO of LiveCraft, tells the press. LiveCraft is marketing agency that specializes in livestreaming technologies and one of the companies e.l.f. Cosmetics partnered with to develop its new Twitch channel. “It’s clear,” adds Johnson, “that Twitch and e.l.f. are meant to be.”

Connecting with beauty consumers where they live online

In 2014, the global investment firm TPG Growth bought majority stake in e.l.f. Cosmetics. And in 2016, took the company public. All along, the millennial-facing beauty brand has been using new media platforms to stay connected with beauty consumers.

This past holiday season, for instance, e.l.f. Cosmetics created a holiday remix album in partnership with the video-sharing platform Triller, as Cosmetics Design reported. And since November of last year, the brand has been collaborating with LuFu, a top gamer with more than 10 million social followers to her credit. According to the brand’s recent media release, LuFu and Anna Bynum (the brand’s global MUA) have streamed hours of co-created content that’s garnered nearly 40,000 hours of views on Twitch and significant exposure across other social channels.

“We are always looking to blaze new trails when it comes to connecting with our current and new fans and believe Twitch is our next frontier—it’s interactive, engaging, authentic and live,” says Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Cosmetics, now that the brand’s own channel is up on Twitch.

Beauty brands are reaching gamers with digital campaigns

e.l.f. Cosmetics is on Twitch primarily to connect with gamers. Girls and women are not invisible in the gaming world, but it’s still often thought of as a male space. And e.l.f. is aiming to “help shatter glass ceilings in the world of gaming, making it more inclusive for and welcoming for female gamers,” according to the release.

Marchisotto and her team see the livestreaming platform as an “opportunity to inspire and support female creators. Together we can empower and inspire so many.”

Brad Timmins, Co-Founder of eGEN Sports, another company that e.l.f. Cosmetics worked with to launch the new channel is confident about not only the brand’s potential to reach consumers on Twitch but also the platforms potential for beauty brands on a larger scale: “We have no doubt,” he says that, “e.l.f. will be the leading cosmetics brand on Twitch and one that every cosmetics brand aspires to emulate.”

And e.l.f. is not alone in the effort to connect with the female gamming community; in January 2020, for instance, Benefit Cosmetics ran a campaign in partnership with esports company Gen. G to reach as many as 15 million women. Read more here on Cosmetics Design.