While coverage of TwitchCon mostly focused on the injuries at Intel and Lenovo’s notorious foam pit, beauty brands had much smoother activations.
NYX Professional Makeup and Benefit Cosmetics sponsored booths at the San Diego event, held October 7-9 for Twitch streamers and gamers. They are among a growing number of beauty brands to invest in Twitch-related marketing as beauty increasingly taps into a female gaming audience.
“NYX Professional Makeup has a unique and developing relationship within this community,” said Diana Valdez, the brand’s head of consumer engagement. “At TwitchCon, we wanted to experiment and learn more about consumer behavior, all while engaging with the community and having fun.”
At the NYX Cosmetics booth, attendees could work with a digital artist to create an avatar makeup lookor take selfies with colorful illuminated backgrounds. They could also participate in a “scavenger hunt,” where they could scan NYX Cosmetics logo hearts throughout the booth to claim a prize. In addition, the brand held a drag queen makeup master class on-site. For NYX Cosmetics, the recent TwitchCon activation was its latest gaming experiment. In August 2021, it became the first cosmetics brand to partner with an esports team.
Benefit Cosmetics, meanwhile, sponsored a booth with electronics brand Logitech offering touchups with makeup artists and a digital scavenger hunt allowing participants to win beauty products. The brand has been active in the gaming space for years, sponsoring the Girlgamer festival in 2019 and launching its Twitch channel last year.
Female-focused Refinery29 was also onsite to connect with the female beauty-focused Twitch audience. The publisher announced the launch of its Twitch channel prior to the event and hosted Twitch streams from the conference. Its channel is focused on beauty, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle.
“There is so much overlap between gaming and beauty right now,” said Melissah Yang, entertainment director at Refinery29, who hosted the Twitch livestreams. She noted that, according to a recent GWI study, nearly 50% of gamers in the U.S. are women and 39% of beauty fans say they enjoy gaming.
“We see a lot of affinity for both gaming and beauty. Not only is makeup what we have in common with gamers and cosplay communities, but the diversity and representation in gaming is important for us,” said Valdez.
NYX Cosmetics and Benefit follow in the footsteps of MAC Cosmetics and Maybelline, which sponsored TwitchCon in 2019.
The world of cosplay and beauty Twitch streamers has also attracted the attention of more brands. Essence Makeup was the latest brand to launch a Twitch campaign, while brands including Charlotte Tilbury, E.l.f. Beauty, OPI, Hero Cosmetics and Em Cosmetics have also been active on the platform.
“I love seeing so many women who aren’t in full cosplay, but who are having fun expressing themselves through makeup and hair. It’s ‘Euphoria’ vibes, but make it gaming,” said Yang.
