Another season of sun-drenched getaways and scorcher campaigns has been and gone, and it’s out with the BBQs and Pimm’s, and in with the air fryers and chai lattes. As we get well and truly into the autumn spirit, we’ve been taking a moment to look back on one of the hottest UK summers in history.
While summer meant longer days, festivals, holidays, staycations, and a wardrobe refresh for people, brands also took their opportunity to share their sense of freedom. Summer gives them a chance to be authentic while showing off another side of their personalities – leaning into summer trends, having fun with their campaigns and evolving their brand perceptions.
Creatively, it can be a summer dream. But it takes some inspired creative and strategic thinking – not to mention superb timing – to make a splash and capture your audience’s attention with a summer campaign.
So, what are the ingredients of a great campaign?
An informed strategy and memorable storytelling
The best starting point is knowing your brand identity and how it’s already perceived. To do this, research is needed into your target audience – how they view your brand, why they use your brand, their pain points, or where they go on holiday – because once you have a firm understanding of that, you can really use it to your advantage in your marketing message. Can you then dial it up to 100? Could you do something unexpected?
The more you understand your current brand perception, the more tools you’ll have to play with and the more focused your strategy will be. Then, it’s all about memorable storytelling. According to The Drum, the best B2B storytelling is either memorable, inspirational, or aspirational – or a combination of the three!1
Standing for something
One of the greatest ways brands connect and engage with consumers is by having their campaign stand for something above and beyond the product or service. This will help your message connect with the consumer on an emotional level – whether that’s in a nostalgic sense, a humorous manner, or a thought-provoking way.
Why’s that important? Because 70% of emotionally engaged consumers spend over two times more than consumers with low emotional engagement.2
Moments of interaction
Once you’ve opened that emotional gateway, it’s all about engagement. According to Microsoft, 51% of consumers feel it’s important to receive a personalised experience across all digital platforms within a brand3, so a campaign needs to open a dialogue between your brand and your audience across multi-media channels.
Tuning into pop culture
Listen to what’s happening in the world of your audience – timing is golden! While you may not always be able to create a full multi-media campaign, you can certainly create smaller ones, especially on social media and respond to real-time events.
With these elements of a great campaign in mind, we tasked a few of our Crackers to share some food and drink campaigns that hit the sweet spot in summer ‘22 – from their different creative strategy, copywriting and design perspectives!
Deliveroo – ‘Chipwatch’
Gary, our Creative Director, loved Deliveroo’s insight-led ‘Chipwatch’ campaign across UK coastlines this summer. Revealing that 53% of Brits have had food stolen from seagulls, Deliveroo took matters into its own hands with official ‘Chipwatch’ team members patrolling beaches in Brighton and Scarborough. The brand even got a bird expert and ornithologist on board – using bird safe deterrents like reflective umbrellas, decoy hawks and even released a gull-deterring song on Spotify to safely keep those pesky birds away from your chips!
“This was a fun campaign that was emotive with plenty of humour and relatability. And some of the ideas/solutions were very easy to execute. It was genius because it used insight that’s relatable to anyone who’s ever eaten by the seaside during the summer – turning that into something that would get coverage. For me, the campaign is a simple extension of its brand personality. Brave, quirky and clever.”
Gary, Creative Director
Dole – ‘No Fruit Should Be Forbidden’
For Rosie, our Copy & Content Lead, it was the nutrition-inspired ‘No Fruit Should Be Forbidden’ campaign from fruits brand, Dole, that really stood out from the crowd. This summer, Dole sent an open letter to Pope Francis (published as an ad in his favourite newspaper), asking to swap out the word ‘fruit’ for an alternative, unhealthy snack name in the Bible – with the message that no fruit should be forbidden or discouraged.
“Launched on International Fruit Day, not only did this bold, tongue-in-cheek campaign put Dole front and centre, it was also created to start a conversation around something bigger. Letters are powerful, and its tone was on point – combining humour and respect with a clear message.”
Rosie, Content & Copy Lead
So, it just goes to show that every season offers an opportunity to reaffirm or evolve your brand perception. If you want your campaign to make a splash, you need to leave your audience with a feeling or a desire to act – either towards buying the product or service, or relate to the brand’s message in a positive way.
That means that every element has to align – from the market research and brand strategy to the creative execution and levels of engagement. Do all of those things, and you may even make a campaign that transcends the seasons and becomes a timeless piece of history.
Want to give your brand a seasonal shake up?
Say Hi!