Pestly is a DEET-free, all-natural insect repellent built on technology that makes the active ingredients work harder and longer extending the effectiveness of organic essential oils. The founder—an industry insider with a background in manufacturing—identified a gap in the natural bug spray category and set out to test a direct-to-consumer product with minimal runway. When they came to Night Shift, there was a formulation and a name. That was it.

The Challenge

The natural bug repellent shelf is a visual mess that sells the threat of West Nile and Lyme Disease through stale clip-art packaging. Pestly had a genuinely differentiated product: a formula the founder believed in enough to manufacture and sell, free of DEET and the clinical smell that comes with it. The brief was lean: build a brand identity and get it to market. There wasn’t a budget for lengthy strategy sessions. The challenge was to make instinctive decisions that a first-time brand founder couldn’t yet articulate, and deliver something shelf-worthy from near zero.

Our Approach

The category sells fear. We sold the backyard. The visual direction leaned into the wholesome, familiar feeling of a summer spent outside: warm, approachable, safe for the whole family. The label hierarchy keeps things clear and legible, with benefit callouts that reassure without alarming. DEET-free, safe for kids, hypoallergenic. A pink band and a circular badge keep it friendly. The kind of thing you’d feel good grabbing off a shelf and throwing in a bag for a camping trip.

The Outcome

Pestly launched DTC on Shopify and was picked up by Twentyseven, a curated lifestyle retailer with locations in Toronto and Prince Edward County. Twentyseven stocks brands like Vacation, Living Libations, and R+Co—boutique retailers at that edit level don’t carry products whose packaging doesn’t hold up. Getting on that shelf is a brand decision, not a product one.