Marketing lessons from iconic summer campaigns

Summer is less than a month away so today we are diving into some of the iconic summer campaigns from the past and what you can learn from them!

Let’s start!

Coca-Cola - Share a Coke

Coca-Cola is one of those things that are strongly associated with summer and many love cracking open a cold, refreshing, bottle (or can) of pop. For years, Coca-Cola has created campaigns centred around the “Share a Coke” theme, which included bottles with names or titles (such as sister). I think by now we have all seen these in stores and at one point or another, may have bought one for ourselves or someone else. 

This campaign started in Australia in the early 2010’s but eventually took off across the globe, you can see an early ad that played in North America here.

Lesson: Features such as personalization and connection (in this case, through sharing a Coke) help consumers feel more connected to a brand and to others. And also, personalization is fun!

McDonald’s - Summer Drink Days

Every summer (from about mid-May to early September) McDonald’s has the Summer Drink Days promo, which includes drinks (from fountain pops to iced coffees, smoothies, and more) for special prices starting at $1. They have also expanded their summer promos to include Summer Treat Days which offers treats like ice cream cones starting at $1. McDonald’s customers know (and love) the drink days, so they typically look forward to it each summer.

Lesson: There’s a few lessons here. One, if something has worked well in the past, it’s ok to do it again! And, like McDonald’s, you can tweak it if you want to, by changing or adding to it. Another lesson is that sometimes doing the same thing over and over is a good thing! It gives your audience something they can expect and look forward to!

Always - Like A Girl

In June 2014, Always launched their Like a Girl campaign, you can view it here. This campaign features someone asking a young man, a boy, and several girls (from around preteen to teen aged years) to do things “like a girl.” This included actions such as running and fighting. All of the people featured performed these actions in a way that made them look “weak” or not strong enough. They then asked young girls to do the same and these girls performed each action confidently. This ad highlighted, both in action and in the text displayed, that “like a girl” is often used as an insult. It also highlighted that many girls become far less confident once they’ve hit puberty.

The aim of this campaign was to highlight the above, but to also challenge and change what it means to do things “like a girl.”

Lesson: This campaign worked for several reasons, let’s look at a few... They highlighted the insight that many girls become less confident after puberty, which is a time when many girls will become familiar with the Always brand. It not only feels like an authentic campaign for their brand because of this, but it also connects with women and girls who have had low self-esteem or have heard “like a girl” as an insult. It’s also inspiring as it challenges us to redefine what it means to do things like a girl.

What are some of your favourite summer campaigns?