PR Case Study: How Saltine Communications Helped Ember & Ash Turn a Founder’s Personal Story Into Meaningful Media Coverage
Building a memorable brand is not always about having the loudest product or the biggest marketing budget. For purpose-driven businesses, the founder’s personal journey can often become one of the strongest ways to connect with audiences.
For Ember & Ash, founder Colette Chan’s journey from corporate marketing manager to entrepreneur provided a deeply personal story behind the brand. From navigating loss and motherhood to rediscovering creativity through illustration, her experiences shaped the purpose behind Ember & Ash and its range of illustrated infant-care and family products.
Saltine Communications helped bring this founder-led story to the media, securing coverage across leading Singapore publications and broadcast platforms including Lianhe Zaobao, CNA938, MONEY FM 89.3 and The Straits Times.
Campaign Summary
The PR campaign focused on positioning Ember & Ash beyond its products by highlighting the personal story, creative journey and entrepreneurial purpose behind the brand.
Rather than relying solely on product features, the campaign centred on Colette Chan as a founder with a relatable story: a former marketing professional who stepped away from the corporate world, rediscovered her passion for illustration and built a business inspired by family, creativity and meaningful everyday moments.
This approach created multiple media angles across parenting, lifestyle, entrepreneurship and business, allowing Ember & Ash to reach audiences through different types of publications and platforms.
Client Background
Ember & Ash is a Singaporean brand founded by Colette Chan, offering infant-care and family products featuring original illustrations hand-drawn by the founder herself.
Its product range includes everyday items such as backpacks, bedsheets, pillowcases, towel ponchos, swimwear and wall decals. The brand aims to bring original artwork into everyday family life, creating products that are practical while also adding comfort, creativity and joy to the home.
Colette’s personal experiences have played an important role in shaping Ember & Ash. After stepping away from her corporate career, she turned her passion for illustration into a business that allows her creativity to become part of everyday family life.
The Challenge
For a growing founder-led brand, the challenge was not simply getting products in front of consumers. Ember & Ash also needed to establish a clear identity and communicate what made the brand meaningful in an increasingly crowded family and lifestyle market.
The brand had a strong personal story, but translating that story into media-worthy angles required finding the right balance between the founder’s experiences, the entrepreneurial journey and the products themselves.
Colette’s transition from a corporate marketing career to entrepreneurship offered a strong business angle, while her experiences with motherhood, creativity and personal loss provided a more emotional and human dimension.
The PR opportunity was therefore to connect these different elements into a cohesive story that journalists could develop into meaningful editorial coverage.
Our PR Strategy
Saltine Communications developed the campaign around founder storytelling, using Colette’s personal journey as the central narrative while connecting it naturally to Ember & Ash’s brand purpose.
One key angle focused on the journey from corporate professional to entrepreneur. Colette had always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, and her decision to leave the corporate world and build Ember & Ash gave business and entrepreneurship media a relatable founder story.
A second angle focused on creativity and personal transformation. Colette began creating digital illustrations during the pandemic and initially shared her work online simply for enjoyment. As interest grew, illustration developed from a personal creative outlet into a business opportunity.
The campaign also explored the connection between motherhood and entrepreneurship. Colette’s daughter became an important source of creative inspiration, influencing how she viewed everyday moments and the role that family memories could play in her work.
By developing these different angles, Saltine Communications was able to present Ember & Ash as more than a product brand. The campaign gave media a story about entrepreneurship, creativity, family and finding purpose through building something of one’s own.
Media Coverage Secured
The campaign achieved coverage across both editorial and broadcast media, giving Ember & Ash exposure to different audiences.
Lianhe Zaobao featured Colette’s deeply personal journey, including her experience of miscarriage, motherhood, healing through illustration and eventually creating Ember & Ash. The article also explored how her daughter became a source of inspiration behind her creative work and how the brand’s products bring her original illustrations into everyday family life.
CNA938 featured Colette in its “A Letter to Myself” segment, focusing on her journey from pain to purpose and the courage it took to step away from the corporate ladder. The feature positioned her story within the broader journey of parenthood and entrepreneurship.
MONEY FM 89.3 explored how Ember & Ash grew from passion into a business. The conversation highlighted the evolution of the brand, Colette’s creative approach and the importance of authentic design and emotional storytelling when building a business.
The Straits Times featured Colette in its “Me and My Money” series, focusing on her childhood ambition to become an entrepreneur and her transition from marketing manager to business owner.
Campaign Results
The campaign secured four media placements across established Singapore media platforms, including two major business and financial publications or platforms and two prominent broadcast and lifestyle-focused outlets.
More importantly, the coverage gave Ember & Ash exposure through multiple storytelling formats. The brand was featured through personal storytelling, entrepreneurship, business, parenting and creative design angles rather than being presented solely as a product-focused business.
This helped build a broader narrative around Colette Chan and Ember & Ash, giving potential customers and audiences a clearer understanding of the person, purpose and creativity behind the brand.
Why This Campaign Worked
The strength of the campaign came from having a genuine founder story that could be adapted to different media angles.
Instead of forcing the same product-focused pitch across every publication, Ember & Ash had several layers to its story. The entrepreneurial journey appealed to business media, while the themes of motherhood, healing and family resonated with lifestyle and parenting audiences.
The founder’s creative process also gave journalists a natural way to talk about the products without turning the stories into straightforward promotional pieces.
This combination allowed Ember & Ash to earn editorial attention by offering something audiences could relate to: the story of a founder turning personal experiences and creativity into a business with meaning.
Why Brands Hire Saltine Communications
For startups and SMEs, strong PR is about finding the story that journalists and audiences will genuinely care about.
Saltine Communications works with brands to identify their strongest media angles and turn them into stories that can be pitched across relevant publications, digital platforms, radio and other media channels.
For founder-led businesses like Ember & Ash, this can mean going beyond the product itself and uncovering the experiences, motivations and ideas that make the founder and brand distinctive.
Through strategic media pitching and targeted storytelling, Saltine helps businesses build credibility through third-party editorial coverage rather than relying only on paid advertising.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a founder’s personal story help a brand get media coverage?
A strong founder story can give journalists a human angle beyond a company’s products or services. Personal experiences, career transitions, challenges and motivations can create relatable editorial stories while naturally introducing the business.
Why is founder storytelling effective for startups?
Founders often have experiences and motivations that make their businesses different from competitors. Sharing that journey can help audiences understand why the company exists and create a stronger connection with the brand.
Can PR work for small or growing brands?
Yes. Smaller businesses can have strong media potential when they have a relevant story, distinctive offering or compelling founder journey. The key is identifying the right angle and pitching it to publications whose audiences are relevant to the brand.
What types of media can Saltine Communications help brands reach?
Saltine Communications works on media campaigns across digital publications, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and other relevant editorial platforms, depending on the campaign and story angle.
About Saltine Communications
Saltine Communications is a Singapore-based PR agency specialising in media relations, thought leadership, founder profiling and guaranteed media opportunities for startups, SMEs and established brands.
The agency has secured coverage across publications including The Straits Times, CNA, Business Times, Tatler, Vogue Singapore, Mothership, Lianhe Zaobao and many others.
If you’re looking to increase brand visibility, establish thought leadership and secure meaningful media coverage, contact Saltine Communications to discover how strategic PR can support your growth.
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