Halfshade relaunch
Our creative response for Halfshade Sun Care, from Caliche in Austin. Tuesday, February 9, 2027.
Your brand is ready. The story is not.
You rebuilt the product. Now the relaunch has to make 2,400 new store shelves feel like the obvious choice by Memorial Day.
Halfshade is an $11.4M brand that has been flat for two years. The new tinted SPF 40 fixes the white cast, the packaging is done, and national retail goes live in May 2027. The brand still reads as a trail product for people who already own one.
The people you need are 22 to 34, live in cities and wear SPF only when they remember. They are not anti-mineral. They are anti-chalk. The campaign has one job: make daily wear feel like getting dressed, not like a chore. Wrong on any of this? Tell us at the pitch.
The numbers we are pitching against
From your Shopify, retail sell-through and the January survey of 1,140 lapsed buyers and non-buyers.
0
New doors in May
0%
Blame the white cast
0%
Buyers over 35 today
$0.0M
Revenue, flat two years
Texture is the barrier, not belief
Survey of 1,140 urban 22 to 34s who skip daily SPF, January 2027. Channel split from Shopify and retail sell-through, trailing twelve months.
Why they skip daily SPF
Main reason given, percent
Where Halfshade sells today
Share of revenue, percent
Route A, The Daily Layer
Our recommendation. SPF becomes the first thing you put on, like a shirt. Vertical films shot as getting-dressed rituals, cut to six seconds for feeds and fifteen for retail screens.
Route B, Zero White Cast
Proof first. Every skin tone, no filter, shot in hard Texas noon light. Built for the shelf and for creators who review it live.
Route C, Golden Hour Club
Community-led. Free evening runs and swims in eight cities, with Halfshade as the reason people show up. Slower to build, strongest on retention.
We have relaunched brands people had already made up their minds about
Four relaunches. Each one had a product that got better and a reputation that had not caught up.
Ocotillo Hydration, from gym bag to fridge door
Repositioned an electrolyte mix as an everyday drink. Retail velocity up 2.3 times in 1,800 grocery doors inside sixteen weeks.
Lowwater Pickle Co., national shelf launch
A Texas brand going national. Creator-led sampling in nine cities took unaided awareness from 3 to 11 percent among 25 to 40s.
Ninefold Razors, subscription reset
A shaving brand losing subscribers to marketplaces. A lifecycle rebuild and new hero film cut monthly churn from 9.1 to 5.4 percent.
Swiftcurrent Socks, retail-first relaunch
Out-of-home and retail media for 640 sporting goods doors. Sell-through hit 71 percent in eight weeks against a 55 percent plan.
The people in the room on Thursday are the people who do the work
Caliche is 23 people on East Cesar Chavez, founded in 2017. Five of them own Halfshade, start to finish.
Reed Callahan
Managing Director. Your single point of contact. Led the Ocotillo and Swiftcurrent relaunches.
Teo Villarreal
Executive Creative Director. Writes the platform and directs all three shoot days.
Brianna Holt
Strategy Director. Runs the research and owns the brand platform. Built the Lowwater sampling model.
Danny Nguyen
Head of Production. Shoots, edits and the 60-asset content system, on budget and on date.
Priscilla Ramos
Media and Measurement Lead. Briefs your media agency and runs the geo test.
Twenty weeks to a shelf that sells
March 8 to July 23, 2027. Live in market on May 25, the Tuesday before Memorial Day.
The fee
All figures in USD. Built from day rates: ECD 2,100, strategy 1,650, media 1,400, art director 1,350, copy 1,250, motion 1,200, design 1,150, analyst 1,100, producer 1,050. Your $1.4M working media sits with your media agency, outside this fee.
Insight and platform
March 8 to April 2.
Insight and platform
March 8 to April 2.
Consumer research
32 interviews and a 2,000-person survey. 8 strategy and 7.5 analyst days.
Retail shelf audit, 40 stores
4 analyst days.
Brand platform and relaunch narrative
9 strategy days.
Creative
April 5 to 23.
Creative
April 5 to 23.
Campaign platform, three routes to one
Includes the pre-test with 600 target buyers.
Creative toolkit
Type, color, motion and shelf rules for every partner.
Production
April 26 to May 21.
Production
April 26 to May 21.
Hero film and stills, three shoot days
Direction, producer and crew. Talent and location billed at cost.
Social and creator content system
60 vertical assets plus creator briefs.
Out-of-home, eight formats
Retail media and shelf assets
Launch and optimize
May 25 to July 23.
Launch and optimize
May 25 to July 23.
Media strategy and agency brief
9 media days.
Creative testing and weekly refresh
Eight weeks of new hooks and cuts.
Geo test and close report
Four matched markets, 9 analyst days.
Management
Management
Account and production management
17 days, about 9 percent of the fees above.
Don't take our word for it. Take theirs.
Pick a route Thursday. Shoot in April.
Decide by Friday, February 26, 2027, and we hold the March 8 start and three shoot days in late April. Two rounds of changes per stage are included. Everything we make, you own.
Prepared by
Reed Callahan Managing Director, Caliche
2401 East Cesar Chavez Street, Suite 210 Austin, TX 78702 reed@caliche.co
For approval by
Kendra Albers Chief Marketing Officer, Halfshade Sun Care
Pitch at your South Lamar office, Thursday, February 11, 2027, at 2:00 p.m.
Appoint Caliche for the Halfshade relaunch
You appoint Caliche on Route A, or the route chosen at the pitch, for the scope above: $247,650 in fees from March 8 to July 23, 2027. We invoice 35 percent, $86,677.50, on approval, then 35 percent at production start and 30 percent on the close report. Talent, location and working media are billed at cost.