American brand Vacation transformed sunscreen—a classic mass-market product—into a collectible object and cultural phenomenon by building a strategy around nostalgia, sensory design, and meticulous attention to every customer touchpoint. Roy Fleeman, the company's Vice President of Design, shared insights in an Adweek podcast on how influencer partnerships and lifestyle positioning help stand out even in a category consumers traditionally view as purely utilitarian.
Finding the emotional gap in a product category
The Vacation team began with a market analysis of sunscreen products and discovered that all players divided the market into two extremes: clinical brands with medical positioning and premium brands with minimalist aesthetics. There was no emotional connection to the product—purchasing cream remained a functional necessity rather than a pleasure.
The brand applied the "This Not That" framework—a differentiation method through contrast. Vacation positioned itself as "joy, not obligation," "a collectible object, not a consumable," "a memory of summer, not sun protection." This approach created a unique value proposition in a category with low loyalty and fierce price competition.
Nostalgia as a branding tool and influencer strategy
Fleeman emphasized that the team deliberately avoided tying to a specific era—instead of 80s or 90s retro aesthetics, Vacation appeals to universal memories of summer vacations, family trips, the smell of sunscreen from childhood. This broad nostalgia resonates with different age groups and creates an emotional trigger for purchase.
Sensory design plays a key role: the brand developed a signature scent "coconut oil + banana" that instantly evokes beach vacations, even when the bottle sits on a shelf in an urban apartment. The packaging changes from batch to batch—each series gets a unique visual, turning purchases into hunts for limited editions and stimulating repeat sales.
Brands must account for trends but not let them define their identity—this is how you create lasting cultural relevance.
Total branding: from packaging to social media content
Vacation designs every element of the customer journey—from tube design to the unboxing experience. The team creates special inserts for deliveries, develops campaigns around specific usage moments (applying cream before heading to the beach, the product's smell in the car on the way to the sea), shoots content that users want to save and share.
This approach turns the product into media: customers become brand ambassadors, posting photos of packaging on social media, sharing impressions, creating organic reach. For marketers, this means every detail—from label typography to insert text—works as a trigger for user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing.
Moment marketing instead of broad campaigns
Fleeman described a strategy of hyperspecific moment marketing: instead of abstract advertising messages, the brand focuses on concrete situations—the first trip to the sea of the season, a weekend at the dacha, a child's birthday party by the pool. This level of detail creates a sense of personal narrative and strengthens emotional connection with the product.
For the Russian market and local brands, this is a lesson in audience segmentation and working with micro-moments: mass marketing gives way to targeted campaigns where each touchpoint addresses a specific need or emotion. Building a media plan this way requires deep behavioral analytics of your target audience and the ability to quickly launch creative content adapted to current context.
Applying the approach to influencer marketing
Vacation's experience shows that turning a product into a lifestyle brand requires not just a strong product, but precise work with ambassadors—influencers who organically communicate brand values and create content around emotions rather than functions. Selecting influencers for this strategy is based on matching aesthetics, tone of voice, and the ability to tell stories rather than simply demonstrate a product. The ETC team helps brands build media buying with these parameters in mind: from analyzing influencer audiences and forecasting integration KPIs to developing creative concepts that turn advertising into content worth saving and reposting.
Frequently asked questions
How do you turn an ordinary product into a must-have brand object?
Find the emotional gap in your category—something competitors don't offer—and build your identity around emotions rather than functions. Work through every touchpoint: packaging, scent, visuals, copy, unboxing experience—every detail should strengthen your brand story. Use nostalgia and sensory triggers to make the product something people want to share on social media.
What role does packaging play in modern marketing?
Packaging is a storytelling tool and user-generated content generator. If the design makes people want to photograph the product and post it to their stories, you get free organic reach and strengthen loyalty. Changing the design from batch to batch creates a collecting effect and encourages repeat purchases.
How does moment marketing work in brand promotion?
Instead of broad advertising campaigns, focus on specific product usage situations—this creates a personalized experience and strengthens emotional connection. Launching such campaigns requires deep audience behavior analytics and flexible creative that quickly adapts to current context and trends.
In brief
- Vacation turned sunscreen into a lifestyle brand by finding an emotional gap in the product category and building positioning around nostalgia and joy rather than functionality.
- The "This Not That" framework helps create differentiation through contrast with competitors on emotional rather than product characteristics.
- Broad nostalgia works more effectively than tying to a specific decade—universal memories resonate with different age groups.
- Sensory design (scent, texture, visuals) and changing packaging transform the product into a collectible object and generator of organic social media content.
- Total design of every touchpoint—from tube design to package inserts—creates a cohesive brand experience and strengthens the desire to share purchases.
- Moment marketing focused on specific product usage situations is more effective than broad campaigns and requires deep audience behavior analytics.
- For the Russian market, the Vacation case shows that success in influencer advertising depends on the ability to turn ads into content worth saving and precise selection of bloggers aligned with brand values.
Want to see where the market is heading before your competitors do? The ETC team builds a media strategy and media plan for your niche — with reach forecasts and KPIs fixed in the contract.
