How Dermal Therapy turned values of family and trust into a global skincare challenger

In Australia’s pharmacy aisles, where multinational giants dominate shelf space and ad spend, a small family-owned brand has carved out a challenger position.

Dermal Therapy, founded by Shelley and Steve Sher from the second bedroom of an apartment in 1998, has grown into one of the fastest-rising therapeutic skincare players by blending scientific rigour with authentic marketing - and a brand promise as simple as it is powerful: it works.

The husband-and-wife duo were no strangers to the skincare market, having dabbled in local markets from time to time. But in 2001 with the birth of their first child, their foray into skincare took on a very different meaning. Within a few months it was clear their son had developed severe eczema and their business quickly turned into something far more personal.

“We did everything. It was a typical story of trialling conventional medicine, trying alternative medicine, trialling every cream that could be thrown at us. We just couldn't find anything to heal it,” co-founder Shelly Sher told Marketing-Interactive.

That experience became the company’s framework: products had to deliver clinically proven results.

Dermal Therapy’s first breakout hit was its lip balm, backed by trials and packaging that carried before-and-after photos. Within a few years it had become the number one selling lip balm in Australian pharmacy.

“If you buy a product from us, it is going to work,” Sher said. “We were one of the first to put before-and-after pictures on packaging. People would say, ‘that’s me, nothing else has worked.’ Then the next day, they’d be back saying, ‘Oh my god.’”

Trust quickly became the foundation of the business. The company employs 40 people across Australia and its products sell globally, supported by staff who have stayed for decades and an ethos of only launching when standards are met.

A new marketing framework

For years, Dermal Therapy kept its founder story private, focusing instead on product efficacy and word-of-mouth growth. More recently though, that has shifted. Pushed by a younger in-house marketing team and agency partners who argued that today’s consumers expect authenticity and behind-the-scenes storytelling, the brand has leant into a more open style of narrative built around these ideals.

“I think people actually demand it from a brand,” Sher said. “Social media has changed all of this. We had to come around to the fact this is what they want. We’ve got a young team of marketers, very much about TikTok and behind the scenes. As much as I was like, guys, you’re killing me, our whole brand is about efficacy - but that is what customers want.”

Packaging has also evolved. The company recently refreshed its look for only the second time in five years, after consumers said they loved the products but disliked displaying them.

“Obviously, if you’ve got eczema or psoriasis you’ll buy it whatever the pack looks like. But we also want to be mainstream. We want people without a very problematic skin condition to also benefit from the quality of the products,” Sher said.

Partnering to scale

The leap from quiet family brand to global challenger required outside help. Dermal Therapy turned to NP Digital, the agency founded by Neil Patel, with a blunt brief: budgets under A$1 million meant they couldn’t compete with multinationals above the line.

“When we were first approached, Shelly and the team were very honest with us, saying this is the budget, and we’re not going to be able to compete with the multinationals, who’ve got all the shelf space and they’re buying above the line,” said Ash Dharan, head of paid media at NP Digital. “What we can do is leverage sophisticated mass marketing to increase mental availability and share of voice in the consumer’s mind.”

That meant always-on digital activity to build mental availability, matched with the company’s strong pharmacy distribution. Search quickly became critical. All SEO copy is signed off by Dermal Therapy’s in-house pharmacist - referred to internally as the “chief formulator” to ensure scientific accuracy while still optimising for discoverability.

“That scientific pharmaceutical bent is really important. We don’t want to be making wild claims,” Dharan said. “But at the same time it has to be optimised for SEO and optimised for AI, so that when people search ‘how do I get rid of my scalp eczema’ that content from Dermal Therapy shows up.”

With AI overviews increasingly dominating Google’s consideration-stage results, credibility and authority have become key. “You’re not necessarily looking to buy a product, you want information that is better than Dr Google. Dermal Therapy has the authority already. It’s just making sure they’re visible.”

Results that speak loudly

The approach has delivered sharp gains. With a lean budget, Dermal Therapy and NP Digital focused each quarter on a handful of hero products, aligning media to retail windows and pushing the “It Works” platform. Paid impressions rose 90%, CPM fell 27%cent, with page 1 organic rankings up 136%. Brand value climbed 24% year-on-year.

“People don’t buy products. They buy the transformation,” Dharan said. “With Dermal Therapy the product actually delivers on the promise. Then it’s just up to us to articulate that transformation.”

Dermal Therapy has also stepped above the line. This year it launched its largest OOH campaign, running across 550 sites nationwide from July to September. Influencers including Tammy Hembrow and Matty J featured alongside micro-creators and genuine users. For an acne campaign, the company deliberately kept scarring visible. “It was a brand saying, this is my real face,” Sher said.

A challenger with global ambitions

The challenger positioning is deliberate. “Our brand is therapeutic skin, and we’re very careful to say we’re not in beauty. You are going to buy our product if you have a problem,” Sher said.

But Dermal Therapy is now broadening appeal with products such as a coloured lip balm. Its global growth ambitions are supported by NP Digital, which now holds the remit across all LaCorium Health brands.

Through it all, the original ethos remains intact: only launch if it works, give samples freely, and partner only with agencies that share the same principles.

For Dermal Therapy, what started as a family’s search for relief has become one of Australia’s most compelling challenger-brand stories - proof that scientific credibility, digital sharpness and authentic storytelling can disrupt even the biggest players.