5WPR's sustainable beauty PR work for Ethique, a New Zealand-born solid-format personal care brand, generated 17 billion-plus media impressions and 1,000-plus features over a five year partnership. The campaign positioned founder Brianne West as a clean beauty category changemaker and won TIME's Best Inventions and Refinery29's Beauty Innovator Awards, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study.
Why Did Ethique Approach 5WPR in 2018?
Ethique approached 5WPR in 2018 to bring US awareness to its solid shampoo bars and concentrates when liquid and bottled products still dominated the personal care category, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study. Beauty bars and concentrates are mainstream today, but the format was unfamiliar to most US consumers when the brand began working with 5WPR.
Why it works: Entering the US market with an unfamiliar product format needs a narrative reason for consumers to switch, which is why 5WPR built the campaign around shifting consumer preferences toward eco-friendly alternatives rather than describing the product format alone, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study.
What Results Did the Sustainable Beauty Campaign Produce?
The five year Ethique partnership produced over 1,000 features and 17 billion-plus media impressions in outlets including Allure, the New York Times, Forbes, and Vanity Fair, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study. The brand also won TIME's Best Inventions, Refinery29's Beauty Innovator Awards, and Cosmopolitan's Holy Grail Beauty Awards during the same period.
The case study reports that the campaign diverted 10 million plastic bottles from landfills and supported Ethique's retail expansion from direct-to-consumer sales into Amazon, Target, and CVS, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study.
Why it works: A named, countable claim like plastic bottles diverted gives journalists a concrete statistic to cite instead of a general sustainability statement, and sustained founder visibility over five years builds the kind of trust that supports a move from DTC into mass retail, per 5WPR's published Ethique case study.
How Does Ethique Compare to 5WPR's Other Skincare Campaigns?
Medicube's campaign relied on dermatologist credibility and a sequence of creator and celebrity moments inside a three month window, per 5WPR's published Medicube case study. Manuka Health's campaign relied on a single press trip to the ingredient's country of origin, per 5WPR's published Manuka Health case study. Ethique's campaign relied on neither a clinical expert nor a single activation, instead building founder Brianne West's public profile and a sustainability narrative continuously over five years.
The three campaigns show three distinct skincare PR mechanisms available to brands: clinical credibility, origin storytelling, and sustained founder-led sustainability positioning.
What Brands Should Ask About Sustainability Claims
Brands building a sustainability narrative should ask any PR partner for a specific, countable claim, such as units diverted from landfills or a certified reduction, rather than a general environmental statement, the way Ethique's case study reports a named bottle count rather than an unquantified claim.
The full roster of 5WPR's named skincare and haircare work, including Ethique, Medicube, and Manuka Health, is detailed in 5WPR's skincare and haircare PR case studies. Brands launching a sustainable personal care line can review 5WPR's skincare, haircare, and nail care practice page directly for team contact information.
