The 5 Best Summer Brand Campaigns of 2016

Originally posted on the PadillaCRT Buzz Bin

Click. Shhhft. Ahhh. Now that’s the sound of summer. Whether it’s a beer, soda, seltzer or water, that sound evokes a sense of ease in the dead of summer. The same can be said for a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream or a cool bite from a refreshing salad on a hot, sunny day.

These visceral consumer experiences are ones that our favorite brands strive to incite in the crowded marketing landscape that is summer. But for a brand whose sales heavily depend on this season, it’s even more critical to set it apart from all the others.

Take a swig of this fact: Nearly one-third of all beer sales take place between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Even scarier: summertime accounts for about 40% of annual ice cream sales.

With this in mind, I looked at seasonal brands with core summer businesses that are breaking out of the mold this season, as well as their keys to success for marketers.

• Budweiser = “America”: You can love it, or you can hate it, but you have to admit that AB Inbev made a splash with this stunt. Whether or not you drink Budweiser… you talked about it. The brand reinforced for us the value in doing something radical that’ll get consumers talking. And if you can get a pithy John Oliver segment, all the better.

• Pepsi 5-Second Emoji Spots: Our 8-second attention spans will love these 5-second ads. Their content, curated by the top summer search terms, perfectly takes advantage of consumers’ appetites for snackable content. And, emojis.

• Haagen Dazs #LoseYourself at Wimbledon: This campaign gave us a lesson in the benefit of focusing communications less on your brand and more on the consumer. The best part? The photography reminded us about the joy of the game.

• Wendy’s Anti-Tasty Blackberry Salad: BuzzFeed’s game-changing Tasty videos introduced visual ways to quickly capture consumer attention. This latest campaign from Wendy’s smartly taps into the Tasty trend but humorously tells the brand’s own sourcing story.

• This year PadillaCRT helped Coppertone change the conversation about sunscreen. Media coverage in US Weekly, Yahoo!, InStyle, Glamour and People showcased a unique campaign that would encourage consumers to think differently about their favorite suncare brand.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the above campaigns, (I hope) you can admit that each teaches us a valuable lesson about summer sales strategies for summertime brands. Think out of the box when appropriate, capture attention whenever possible and empower your audience to digest your content easily and effectively.

Interested in learning about how PadillaCRT can help with your consumer marketing efforts? Email Greg.Tarmin@padillacrt.com, executive vice president and consumer group lead.