At-home hair-color brand DP Hue’s latest product is its first targeting the TikTok generation.
Dubbed Glossy Glaze, the $29 in-shower product comes in six shades and is all about “commitment-free color.” The two-minute in-shower treatment is meant to give hair a wash of color and shine. According to the brand’s product description, it provides a “subtle tint” that lasts for up to three washes.
The brand was founded in 2011 to provide at-home solutions for hair color maintenance. Until the launch of Glossy Glaze, it has primarily catered to women over age 35, according to CEO Pierre Lampert. With Glossy Glaze, he said, “we wanted to expand our reach to this younger clientele who doesn’t know anything about hair color, but is interested in it or wants to make a subtle change and try options without commitment.”
As such, Glossy Glaze is intended to be an easy-to-use, playful product. To get it off the ground, the brand moved from marketing primarily on Instagram to focusing its efforts on TikTok. “We know that younger [20-something] consumers find a lot of hacks, advice and trends on TikTok, and enjoy being there,” Lampert said.
A few months ago, DP Hue hired a social content coordinator dedicated to stepping up its presence on TikTok and building relationships with creators on the app. For the launch of Glossy Glaze, the brand is taking a multi-pronged approach. The first wave of content went live on Tuesday, in tandem with the product’s launch on DP Hue’s e-commerce site. This included paid posts by influencers Emira D’Spain (1.2 million TikTok followers; 107,000 Instagram followers) and Audrey Victoria (2.7 million TikTok followers; 456,000 on Instagram). The brand also sent samples to 800 smaller influencers, many of whom it expects will post organically.
This campaign is the kickoff point, but Lampert stressed that the goal for the brand is “not to buy relationships, but to foster relationships.” He hopes to create a marketing model where creators are excited to post about it because they love the brand. “The financial relationship obviously exists, but [we are also looking for creators who want to] foster a real, long-term relationship with the brand,” he said. That’s also why the brand invested in making a hire dedicated to TikTok, he said.
DP Hue has already had notable organic success on TikTok. The hashtag #dphue has 3.5 million views. Its existing gloss, the $37 Gloss +, has been a particular hit, given the fact that copper and red hair are currently trending. “Gloss + had huge success on TikTok last year because it’s a very visible product,” Lampert said. “Reds [have been] really in since last spring [and there was] all this great content coming from colorists and consumers who were showing how Gloss + transformed their hair into something fiery and beautiful.”
The Glossy Glaze campaign will run through May, when Ulta Beauty will begin carrying the product, in tandem with its Gorgeous Hair Event. At that point, Mikayla Nogeuira (14.6 million TikTok followers; 2.5 million on Instagram) will step in. “That’s exactly when Mikayla will take the mic on TikTok and talk about the product, and talk about the fact that the distribution of Glossy Glaze is exclusive to Ulta,” Lampert said. On an ongoing basis, DP Hue will have a full end cap in over 1,100 Ulta doors.
Justin Anderson, celebrity colorist and DP Hue’s co-founder (558,000 Instagram followers) is a “not-so-secret weapon” for the brand, Lampert said, noting that Anderson will spearhead Glossy Glaze content on Instagram.
As for how the younger influencers were selected, Lampert said, “We found that the energy and the way they want to talk about products is very aligned with who we are as a brand — which is serious, because we give performance. But we are also a brand that wants to make sure that the experience of using our products is playful. It’s easy.”
