If you’ve ever asked someone whether their Barrière patch is a tattoo, congratulations – you’ve just entered the brand’s marketing funnel.
Founded in 2020, Barrière makes wearable transdermal vitamin and wellness patches, including ones for mood and stress, sleep, focus, nausea relief and lactose intolerance. There are even little UV sensor stickers that change color with sun exposure and reveal hidden artwork when it’s time to reapply sunscreen.
Instead of having to swallow a capsule or eat a gummy, the patches deliver micronized ingredients through the skin and into the bloodstream.
Because they’re designed to look like tiny tattoos rather than a medical device, they’re also natural conversation starters, says Cleo Davis-Urman, Barrière’s CEO and co-founder, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
“The visual nature of this product was a part of the strategy,” she says.
When someone sees one and asks, “Hey, what’s that?” it’s a powerful entry point for growth. But word-of-mouth is also incredibly hard to measure.
“We know it’s happening,” Davis-Urman says, “[but] measuring impact is nuanced, because there isn’t one perfect attribution model.”
So Barrière pieces together multiple signals to get a clearer picture. The company uses platforms like Bubblehouse and TYB to track repeat shoppers and reward sharing, along with affiliate links, custom UTMs and social listening on channels like Reddit.
At the same time, Davis-Urman and her team keep a close eye on hard numbers, like customer acquisition cost and ROAS, to ensure retention, sustainable growth and profitability.
“I’m less focused on proving that one specific thing drove a specific sale,” she says, “and more focused on understanding what are the programs that are creating and sustaining growth across all sales channels.”
Also in this episode: Barrière’s expansion from DTC into Target and Ulta, using retail media – including Target’s Roundel – to support in-store visibility and striking the right balance between education and eye-catching creative. Plus: Why Davis-Urman still personally handles all customer care requests herself.
