The Summer of the Ice-Cream Pop-up: What Brands should Know About Seasonal Activations

Building equity for the long haul

This summer, ice-cream seemed to become the default seasonal activation. Loewe opened a pistachio pop-up in the U.K., Laneige joined with Sephora for an NYC ice-cream cart and Pepsi took its ice-cream-inspired flavors to London’s Soho.

Ice-cream already means summer, fun, deliciousness and nostalgia for many people. It’s easy to see why brands wanted to be part of it.

But borrowing those associations can drive short-term buzz without building something lasting for the brand. Loewe’s pop-up, for example, served pistachio ice-cream to celebrate a new pistachio-scented candle. The treat was a metaphor for a scent. That asks consumers to make a bigger leap: from a fashion house and its established candle range to a new scent most will not recognize, then from the pistachio flavor to its fragrance. It is a connection that needs explaining rather than one people will readily make for themselves.

A good seasonal activation will build brand equity through associations people remember and come to expect. It could even become a source of nostalgia. But joining a trend for one summer can create attention without building anything the brand can keep.

To build lasting associations rather than a spike in attention, brands should ask four questions.

Does the category make sense for your brand?

Categories carry their own associations. For an ice-cream activation to do more than borrow feelings of summer and joy, brands need to consider how those feelings connect with what people already know about them.

McDonald’s summer Sauce Shop, a Manchester, U.K., pop-up celebrating familiar dips alongside three new flavors did just that. The pop-up gave people a memorable way to engage with an existing brand association. Coca-Cola and Christmas are a classic example of a brand and seasonal occasion becoming closely linked. Coca-Cola’s place at family gatherings easily gave it a connection to the festive season, which the brand has then strengthened through years of Christmas activity.

The question for any brand considering ice-cream is where its own associations meet those of the category. Connecting those will create a smooth, intertwined journey in consumers’ minds.

Have you earned the right to play?

Brands can also build associations beyond those expectations. Earning the right to play means establishing a connection the category does not automatically give you.

That takes sustained presence. If a brand chooses a culturally relevant space and returns to it again and again, consumers can begin to accept the connection. An unexpected juxtaposition stops feeling strange and starts feeling like part of the brand.

Aperol did not inherit an association with summer simply by being an aperitif. It created an easy drink to order and a refreshing ritual, then built its distribution around the daytime, outdoor, group occasions where summer gatherings happen. It built physical activations rather than relying on online activity or advertising, branding social spaces such as Terrazza Aperol with its drinks and distinctive assets. Those spaces helped generate word of mouth. Aperol built the venue, then scaled it globally, year after year. It owned the serve, owned the color, owned the vibe.

Will people make the connection unprompted?

The best associations for a brand are the ones that happen spontaneously: the ones consumers bring to mind for themselves. That matters when someone is standing in an aisle, scrolling a website or facing a need with no campaign or logo in front of them to supply the connection. It correlates far more tightly with market share than associations you can only get consumers to agree with when you feed them the idea.

Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte has moved from a seasonal activation to become a predictable signal that autumn has arrived. This has made it the chain’s most popular seasonal drink. The combination of autumn and a hot, sweet drink, alongside a limited seasonal return, gives people a specific product to anticipate, and Starbucks has used that association consistently.

Brands need to be specific about the moment or situation they want to be associated with, and keep using the cues that reinforce it—Rome wasn’t built in a day. Consistency and specificity matter more than finding a new clever idea each year.

Does it feel like you?

Brands should consider whether the activation fits their personality and tone. Does it build on a character people already recognize? Could the category help them develop an aspect of that character? The strongest ideas can do both.

Reese’s uses the shapes of its familiar product to mark different occasions: hearts for Valentine’s Day, eggs for Easter, ghosts for Halloween and trees for Christmas. The shapes change, but the recipe and the brand’s playful, unpretentious attitude remain recognizable. Its seasonal activity feels like Reese’s.

There is value in building an association that people expect to see again each year. There is also a challenge: brands strongly associated with one season need to find ways to matter at other times. Baileys, for example, has become a drink so synonymous with Christmas it struggles to grow.

The aim is to make a seasonal moment part of a broader set of connections people have with the brand, rather than enjoy a brief spike of attention and disappear with the season.

Related: Magnum Unwraps Fresh Batch of Artsy Ice Cream Commercials