From Australian cult brand → UK retail launch

The Situation An Australian brand with strong local equity entering a market that didn't know it yet. The UK skincare category is crowded, sceptical, and brand-loyal. Getting shelf space at Boots is one thing. Getting consumers to pick your product off that shelf is another entirely. The brand needed to arrive with enough momentum that retail placement translated into actual sales velocity — not just a listing that quietly underperformed. The Work Heading up the marketing function for Alya Skin, the work spanned both sides of the equation — product and market. On the product side, I was part of the development of the Sleep Mask — working with the formulation team to understand the hero ingredients and build a product narrative that was grounded in how it actually worked, not just how it looked. On the market side, the UK launch was built around earned attention rather than paid reach. Working closely with the PR team, we organised a series of pop-up events and activations designed to get the product directly into the hands of the people who mattered — press, influencers, industry figures — and let the results speak. The launch event in Sydney anchored the campaign. UK activations built the story in-market. Digital content and PR coverage reinforced both. The through-line across all of it: the product is the hero. Everything else creates the conditions for people to discover it. The Outcome The Sleep Mask launched into a saturated market and cut through. The UK entry generated significant media coverage and consumer interest. The Boots listing was supported by real demand — not just shelf presence. An Australian brand that had built its name at home successfully made the case for itself in one of the hardest beauty markets in the world. What this work is Product development and market entry are usually treated as separate problems by separate people. The advantage of having one person across both is that the story you tell in market is the same story the product was built to support. That coherence — from formulation to shelf — is what makes a launch land rather than sit.