- YouTube stars Ethan and Grayson Dolan have expanded their digital business by launching a direct-to-consumer fragrance company, Wakeheart.
- In 2019, with the help of Wakeheart cofounder Kevin Gould, and his team at Kombo Ventures, the duo launched two scents, which sold out within four hours.
- Now they are back with a second launch, a three-scent collection named Enterlight, which will be released Jan. 31, and individually retails for $49.
- The Dolans and Gould shared inside the process of creating an influencer-led product, and their ambitions for Wakeheart.
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Ethan and Grayson Dolan have a passion for fragrance and say they never leave the house before spraying on a scent.
The popular twin influencers have 10.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and last year, as a way for them to expand their digital business off-platform, they launched the direct-to-consumer fragrance company, Wakeheart. Grayson said the company name was inspired by a road that connects and leads up the northern beaches of Sydney Australia, one of the Dolans favorite places.
With the help of Wakeheart cofounder Kevin Gould, and his team at Kombo Ventures (a talent management firm, strategic creative agency, and brand incubator), the duo released two gender-neutral scents in July 2019.
Now they are back with a second launch, a three-scent collection named Enterlight, which will be released Jan. 31, and individually retails for $49.
Developing consumer products to sell directly to followers has become one of the trending ways influencers are profiting off their digital brands. Perfume launches, which have been a staple among Hollywood celebrities and performers, from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande, have been particularly popular for influencers.
Other YouTube influencers, like Tana Mongeau (5 million subscribers), have joined in on the growing fragrance business. Last week, Mongeau sold out her fragrance "TANA by Tana" within 76 minutes, on the ecommerce site Shopify.
Wakeheart's products are sold directly on the company's website, and its first collection sold out within four hours, according to Gould. He said it "moved over 20,000 units" in the initial drop.
The Dolans and Gould shared details on the process of creating an influencer-led product, and their ambitions for Wakeheart.
The process behind creating an influencer-led product
The 20-year-olds rose to fame in 2013 from their popular comedy videos on the defunct video sharing platform Vine. Since then, they have attracted a massive audience across social media, which is composed of primarily women aged 17 to 19.
Gould, who is also the cofounder of the hair care brand, Insert Name Here (yes, that's actually the name), and a founding investor of Beautycon Media, said he was impressed by how much the Dolans knew about the fragrance space.
The duo is known online for their sense of style. For instance, last summer luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton invited them to Paris Fashion Week, and they have created a handful of videos promoting the brand.
When it came to Wakeheart, they wanted to be as hands-on as possible with the development process, which Gould said took over six months for each collection.
"Anything we do, we want to be heavily involved with the creative," Grayson said.
In prep for both launches, they traveled to New York to learn about ingredients, and to test out scents. There were multiple iterations of scents, and about seven rounds of potential products that led them to the final version of the Enterlight collection.
Throughout the process, they were focused on creating a product that not only they enjoyed, but would also appeal to their mass audience.
Building Wakeheart has allowed the twins to take a step back from YouTube, a platform that is known to induce feelings of burnout among some of its top creators.
Turning followers into paying customers
The influencer marketing industry is projected to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, and social-media stars are increasingly leveraging their presence online to create consumer products to sell directly to their followers.
Influencer-led DTC brands started in earnest in 2012, with companies like the fitness program, "EmFitChallenge"; the phone case company, Wildflower Cases; and the cold-press juice line, Suja, according to a recent report on the state of "influencer-to-consumer" brands by the influencer software company Mavrck.
Since then, the space has exploded. Especially in the fashion and beauty verticals, DTC products have proven to be a lucrative source of income, and a way for influencers to diversify their revenue streams outside of sponsorships and direct revenue earned off YouTube.
Adam Wescott, a partner at Select Management Group - who manages YouTube creators like Eva Gutowski (mylifeaseva, with 10 million YouTube subscribers) and Lauren Riihimaki (LaurDIY, with 9 million subscribers) - said DTC products was a trending revenue source for top creators in 2019.
"If you take something that their audience already recognizes them for, and then you add an original innovative product and formula that services a need, people would be buying the product anyways," Wescott told Business Insider in a previous interview.
The Dolans hope to build a larger community around Wakeheart, something that will expand past what they have online.
They plan to eventually develop more scented beauty products, like body sprays and washes. They are also open to exploring retail partnerships, according to Gould.
"We are still learning," Ethan said. "This is our first consumer-based company. As the company grows and evolves, so will we as owners."
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