Challenge

Looking like a big brand (without a big brand budget)

Ethique is a New Zealand-founded beauty brand on a mission to eliminate plastic from bathrooms worldwide with their solid shampoo and conditioner bars. They're sold globally from Amazon and Ulta to Target and retailers across Australia and New Zealand.

Design Director Ashley Pearsall had a problem: Ethique operates under a large parent company, but their actual team is tiny.

"We know how to present like a big brand, but we don't have a big content budget."

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Before soona, Ethique worked with a traditional agency for their rebrand. The process was expensive, uncollaborative, and frustrating.

"They preferred us to be fully hands-off. They made the selects, chose the models—we weren't really collaborating," Ashley says. "We put in a lot of money, but the assets weren't lasting as long as we'd like. They weren't representative of what the brand should be saying."

They were also working with creators who positioned themselves as photographers.

"It's expensive because you're not on set. They deliver whatever feels good to them, and if it doesn't work, they have to reshoot. That feels like wasted time."

The result? A lack of control, a lack of collaboration, and assets that fell flat.

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Solution

Streamlined shoots with full creative control

Ashley had been a fan of soona for years, so it came time to find a better solution, she knew exactly where to turn.

Ethique was working with an agency before making the switch to soona. Since then, Ethique has collaborated with soona across use cases, including a major shoot for their Target launch. Ashley loves working with a soona producer, and she adds a stylist to every shoot.

"I don't know what I would do if we didn't have a stylist," Ashley says. "For me it's without question, I need that person who's going to make sure the box tops are flat, everything's aligned. The more we worked together, the more she became familiar with our product."

The process is straightforward: Ashley creates detailed shot lists, the soona producer translates them into actionable shoot plans, and they execute efficiently on set.

What makes it work

Collaboration without the chaos

For Ashley, the difference between agencies and soona comes down to one thing: trust.

"Working with an agency, there are so many signoffs. Everybody has to be aligned on the timeline and all the things," she explains. "Now, since that first shoot went well, there are fewer checkpoints. It's more about giving me the headline of what we want to create, and then I can just go and create it. It's way more streamlined."

She also loves the platform itself:

"Most of the time I'm on your site, I have a very small geek-out moment. It's very fluid—doing a live shoot and then having storage afterwards for all the content. I can go back and reference it or buy photos we didn't buy immediately. It's readily available. Top tier."

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Outcome

Better visuals, better sales, better morale

+16% sales increase on Amazon after updating their hero product images with soona photos (measured over a 14-day window)

Major retailer launches including Target (February 2026) using soona content across all touchpoints

Improved team morale: "People wanted to like the brand more than they did previously with the visuals we had. Now we've entered a new chapter where things feel more powerful. That's a strong testament to the visuals we've produced with you all."

Global content deployment across Amazon, Ulta, Target, their website, social media, paid ads, YouTube, and international markets in New Zealand and Australia

"soona has absolutely made my life better. It's made the creative the level that I feel like it should be. I'm ride or die at this point."

— Ashley Pearsall, Design Director at Ethique

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