SPLATZ™: Hand Soap with a Slime Appeal
Slime has been trending in the toys and games industry for several years and, with the onset of Covid, soap became a valuable commodity. Now a new item called SPLATZ™ has found a way to combine the two trends by creating a soap that literally goes “splat” when kids squeeze it under water. To see a demonstrative video, Watch Here.
Splatz™ is a product of the One Fun™ Company that is known for creating playful personal care products for kids. Their mission is to turn ordinary tasks and healthy habits — like washing your hands — into a fun experience. Splatz™ soap, which comes in a jar and contains marble-sized bubbles of soap that are fun to pop, certainly fits that description.
Splatz™ is the first product produced by One Fun™ Company since its establishment in 2017 by an entrepreneurial designer and two Harvard/MIT scientists. Splatz™ is formulated with natural, USA-made, biodegradable ingredients wrapped in eco-friendly packaging. Ironically, SPLATZ™ was developed before COVID-19 but its release during a global pandemic was very timely.
Alli DiVincenzo, the co-founder of One Fun and a mother herself, recently discussed her experiences starting a company and keeping it afloat during an international health crisis.
Meagan Meehan (MM): How did you discover your passion for entrepreneurship?
Alli DiVincenzo (AD): I have been starting “businesses” since I was in the fifth grade, including a subscription-based magazine called “Treasure” and a custom scrunchy socks design business called OxySocks. Low sales pressure those days! After ten years of earning a steady paycheck in the corporate world as a graphic designer, I branched out on my own and launched, sold or licensed five businesses since 2010 including a tech-connected toy for kids called FlairFriends and an illustrated storybook series for moms called Sipping Sisterhood.
MM: How did you get interested in making soap?
AD: My interest goes beyond making soap; it expands across the entire personal care for families category. As a mom of two, having a healthy daily hygiene routine is highly important to me and our family. Even before COVID-19 and a global pandemic was imaginable, I was an avid proponent of frequent hand washing. In 2009, my brother’s two-year old daughter was exposed to E.coli poisoning, and she has had serious complications ever since. Knowing first-hand that our children are vulnerable to deadly bacteria and viruses has made me more conscientious of proper personal care.
MM: How did you come up with the unique blend for this soap?
AD: When my son Will was around four years old, he continuously fought me on washing his hands after using the bathroom, before dinner and coming home from school. It was like pulling teeth while pulling my hair out! One day I had an aha moment! He loved tactile toys such as slime, putty, fidgets, Orbeez and popping bubble wrap, but strongly disliked boring old hand soap. I suddenly realized I had to change the soap, not the kid. SPLATZ™– Naturally Fun Hand Soap, the first innovation from ONE FUN™ Company, are eco-friendly bubbles of pure hand soap that literally SPLAT! when kids hold them under water. Developed by two Harvard/MIT scientists using a patent-pending formula and all-natural ingredients, these irresistible balls of fun change the way kids think about washing their hands.
MM: You had this planned before the pandemic, but how did the global health crisis affect sales and popularity?
AD: Drs. Jeff Karp and Yuhan Lee, two incredible Harvard/MIT scientists, and I co-founded ONE FUN™, and we have been working on the SPLATZ™ formula since 2017. Jeff and Yuhan also have young kids and struggle with personal care in their homes.
Launching during the COVID crisis couldn’t have been more timely. As the global pandemic raged through cities and schools, the simple act of washing one’s hands took on new importance. With a gentle squeeze and an awesome SPLAT!, each SPLATZ™ soap bubble turned this essential (but tedious) task into a happy moment. We have had a steady increase in sales since launching just before Thanksgiving 2020, mostly through word of mouth.
MM: How did you go about raising awareness about this soap and your brand?
AD: We started by enlisting the support of friends and family to test, give us feedback and talk us up. We’ve hand delivered cases to local stores to sell. We do a lot of social media, and as word got out, we started getting interest from influencers, teachers, moms, mommy bloggers, as well as traditional news outlets such as NBC and CBS. We are looking forward to additional press. We have a long-range strategy to give back a percentage of our profits to organizations and charities focused on children’s health and welfare. We’re also planning to donate SPLATZ™ product to communities in need.
MM: What’s the best feedback you’ve gotten about SPLATZ™ so far?
AD: We hear over and over again from moms who previously had a hard time getting their kids to wash hands that it’s easy now with SPLATZ™. Parents no longer need to beg their kids to wash up; kids actually ask their parents if they can wash their hands with SPLATZ™! Priceless!
MM: Might you create other types of soap soon?
AD: Funny you should ask! We just launched a limited edition heart-shaped SPLATZ™ for Valentine’s Day and we plan to offer other special edition shapes and scents for our monthly subscribers.
MM: What other kinds of products might you release in the future?
AD: Our ONE FUN™ Boston-based lab is working on SPLATZ™ Body Wash and Bubble Bath as well as oral care products including toothpaste and mouthwash. They all revolve around the idea that getting clean should be as much fun as getting dirty. All of our products will start with a surprising SPLAT! that makes washing up a treat instead of a task. But part of our goal is that the products work as hard as they play. They need to look and smell good and are made in the USA using all natural ingredients. And because we care about the environment (almost) as much as we care about our kids, all ONE FUN™ products will be completely biodegradable and packed in eco-friendly containers. Aside from our SPLATZ™ line we have another line in the works that is top secret; you’ll have to follow us on social media @onefunco to find out!
MM: What are your ultimate goals for the ONE FUN™ Company and is there anything else that you would like to mention?
AD: The mission of ONE FUN™ Company is to create playful personal care products for kids designed to turn ordinary tasks into extraordinary experiences, building healthy habits and spontaneous giggles as they work. What makes ONE FUN™ Company so great is our team of incredibly creative, hardworking problem solvers…who also manage to make their tasks incredibly fun. Everyone wakes up each day with a can-do and will-do whatever it takes to get the job done attitude. While we can’t all work together in person we connect frequently (and laugh often) over text, zoom, phone, and even telepathy.
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To learn more about SPLATZ, visit the One Fun Company website and follow them on social media via @onefunco