This story first appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Strategy Magazine.

In a world where every brand is shouting into the same megaphone, Evio hit the mute button. The Canadian beauty brand – known for its clean skincare and eye patches – stepped back from online for a year. No more Instagram Reels, TikTok content, influencer collabs or even email marketing. Just digital darkness.

“We used to post online every single day,” says Evio founder Brandi Leifso. “But eventually, it just didn’t feel good anymore. It wasn’t driving revenue. The content didn’t feel revolutionary. And it was expensive to maintain.”

The break, which began in January 2024, came after years of trying to make influencer marketing work. At one point, Evio was “paying $10,000 to $20,000 a post, and it felt like going to Vegas. You didn’t know what you’d get back,” she says. “We worked with 50 to 100 influencers, and only two were ever able to tell us what they converted in sales.”

With Evio’s budget freed up, the company decided to hire a field team to educate retail associates on Evio’s products. “We’re in Shoppers Drug Mart, so we decided to go all-in on that relationship. We visit 60 stores a month, do in-person training, and I do founder visits. We treat the retail staff like our customers, because they are.”

That shift saw Evio’s sales grow 370% last year. And in 2025, sales are up more than 1,000% compared to the same time last year. The retail investment also led to a stronger connection to local communities. Leifso recalls stopping by her neighbourhood Shoppers, where an associate excitedly told her how many patches she’d sold because she told customers the founder lived around the corner. “You don’t get that on Instagram,” she says. “It feels local. It feels real.”

Evio also struck duty-free partnerships with airports and has been co-creating eyepatch products with wax studios, spas and retailers. “We just focused on doing fewer things, better,” says Leifso. “We didn’t host events. We didn’t try to be everywhere. We focused on our retail partners.”

Now, after a year offline, Evio is returning to digital with a podcast this June. And the focus isn’t on product reviews or beauty tutorials: it’s how to cope with stress. “Our mission is to reduce the effects of stress. We want to normalize not having it all together. And that gives us a reason to be back on social.”

Going forward, Evio will only partner with creators on a revenue-share model, offering 20% to 50% of sales instead of flat fees.

“We’re not taking on all the risk anymore,” says Leifso. Evio’s decision to unplug was about figuring out what to stop. “We had to get quiet to figure out what really moved the needle.”