A gift guide is an unlikely place to look for an agency’s next business idea. It has the air of a seasonal errand: assemble the products, publish the recommendations, move on. Katie Hammond looked at her agency’s coverage spreadsheet and saw a reason to stay.
In a public account of The Last Layer’s November 2025 results, Hammond reported 270 placements. More than 70% came from holiday gift guides and listicle-style articles. She also observed that some of the strongest traffic came from existing stories being refreshed. Her response was to announce Layered Discovery, an editorial program intended to keep brands in those guides as they change.
The interesting unit of work here is the return visit. A publicist earns a place, then has to keep making the product useful to an editor. For a founder who wants the launch announcement framed on the wall, this is a less ceremonial proposition. Keep the information current. Keep the relationship alive. Give the next shopper a reason to consider you.
Coverage volume measures editorial activity, not purchases.
A specialist in the shopping decision
The Last Layer works in public relations and communications, with a concentration in parenting, wellness, lifestyle and consumer packaged goods. Its portfolio includes Bobbie, Babylist, Canopy and Lalo. The services cover brand strategy, editorial outreach, influencer relationships, creative production and activations.
The client examples make that menu tangible. Babylist’s entry describes events in New York and Los Angeles and talent management. Canopy’s includes editorial, gifting and event execution. These are different jobs within the same buying problem: how does a product become familiar enough to enter someone’s consideration?
A narrow category can be a useful education. The questions repeat, even when the products change: who is it for, what makes it different, and who can explain the difference convincingly? The agency says it has worked with more than 50 modern parenting brands. That concentration suggests a specialist’s pitch: less time learning the category’s vocabulary, more time deciding what deserves attention.
“The Last Layer is the only agency I would ever consider working with in the baby space.”Aaron Zagha, Newton CMO, in an agency-published testimonial
Before the layers, there was 9SPR
Hammond’s older professional biography provides a useful starting point. She opened 9SPR in 2011 after working at boutique and full-service agencies, including 72andSunny. The biography describes experience across lifestyle and modern parenting, and names publications including People, Parents and Vogue among outlets featuring her clients.
That background matters because an agency can be bought for two quite different things: capacity or judgment. Capacity means more people to send the emails and organize the samples. Judgment means knowing which email merits sending, which sample belongs with which person, and when an apparently small opportunity fits the product better than a grand one. Hammond’s career description makes relationships and close client attention central to the offer.
The Last Layer’s LinkedIn profile puts its experience at more than 80 modern brands overall. A recruitment post describes a business built through referrals and seeks people who understand how editorial and affiliate marketing work together. Read as a statement of working priorities, that is revealing: commercial awareness belongs in the publicist’s job description.
There is also a recommendation outside the agency’s own website. On her personal list of PR firms, Drybar co-founder Alli Webb highlights The Last Layer’s work for Canopy, praising its attitude and understanding of consumer trends. Her list also includes The Narrative Group and R&CPMK. A buyer has alternatives; the case for this particular agency rests on relevant experience and the people doing the work.
The recommendation gets a points balance
On March 4, 2026, a related venture announced its public launch. It’s Layered was co-founded by Hammond and Chantelle Voss, founder of Carli.ai. The pairing brought a consumer PR background together with experience in online community marketing.
The premise was straightforward: a loyalty program could recognize participation before it produced a purchase. This is a founder-associated venture, with It’s Layered LLC named as the app provider. It deserves to be understood separately from an agency engagement.
For brands, the platform describes a sequence of setting up a profile, publishing challenges and tracking participation in a dashboard. Challenges can ask for photos, reviews or referrals. Its brand page offers onboarding and help developing those activities, alongside analytics. The proposed value is a more organized way to work with customers already willing to contribute.
- 01 / JOINChoose a brand community
- 02 / CONTRIBUTEComplete a challenge
- 03 / REDEEMTurn points into a brand reward
A product workflow, not a forecast of sales.
Oilogic supplies a concrete example. Its website invites customers to answer polls, share experiences, post photos or videos and refer friends through the app. Participants can generate a reward code and apply it at checkout on Oilogic’s website. The journey ends somewhere specific: a discount on a product the customer can actually buy.
Free has a small-print companion
The consumer app is listed as free. Its Shopify integration is free to install, while the listing says external charges may be billed separately. Those facts describe entry points, not a complete budget for running the program.
A sensible brand budget would account for the rewards, the staff time spent choosing and reviewing activities, and any service charges. A discount has an economic cost even when the software installation does not. This is the question a buyer should bring to a demo: what will a completed, useful customer action cost after everything is counted?
The app’s release history also makes the work behind the idea visible. A January update mentions adjustments to redemption flows; a March update records rebuilding the login screen to fix bugs. These are modest details with large practical consequences. Before a customer can become an advocate, they have to get into the app. Before points feel valuable, redemption has to work.
Keep a place at the table
Two operating ideas emerge from these projects. Editorial coverage needs upkeep. Customer enthusiasm needs an activity people can complete. Both ask a brand to think beyond the moment it first attracts attention.
A reader can borrow that discipline without buying either service. Audit the articles where shoppers compare your category. Check whether product details are accurate and still useful. For a community experiment, choose one action with a clear purpose, make the reward understandable, and measure whether participants return. Treat the resulting numbers as evidence to examine.
The limits follow from the same logic. A frequently mentioned product may still be wrong for the shopper. A reward can attract someone who wants the reward more than the product. More submissions do not automatically mean better recommendations. A brand needs something customers find worth using, and enough patience to distinguish activity from a relationship.
That is what makes The Last Layer an interesting agency to watch. Its founder’s projects connect the editor revisiting a guide with the customer returning to a brand. The launch happens once. The next recommendation remains a job.