In beauty, summer is the Super Bowl. Everyone’s chasing the same sun-kissed aesthetic, SPF launches drop like new singles, and TikTok is one big “what’s in my beach bag” playlist. You’ve got three months to turn suncare into sellouts, beach bags into brand placement, and poolside selfies into press hits. Here’s how to work the season like it’s your runway — and keep your name in beauty editors’ inboxes (and on their IG Stories) long after Labor Day.

1. Turn Your Launch Into Engineered FOMO

If your launch is just an email blast, you’re leaving PR on the table. You need a stunt that basically generates its own paparazzi, something people can’t resist posting even if they have no idea what you’re selling. Public, photogenic, and interactive will outlive “exclusive” and “invite-only” every single time.

Vegan tanning brand Coco & Eve understood this. They rolled a retro VW Kombi onto Bondi Beach, turned it into a live DJ booth, served branded coconuts, and set up photo-ready lounge areas right in the sand. Locals stumbled into it, influencers planned their outfits for it, and tourists left with both a tan and a TikTok.

2. Turn a Seasonal Archetype Into an Activation

Don’t just “do a pop-up” — hitch it to something people already hardwire to summer in their brains. Ice cream trucks, beach cabanas, lemonade stands… the stuff that makes you instantly smell sunscreen and regret not wearing SPF 50. These are instant nostalgia, free photo ops, and require zero explanation. Wrap your brand in a seasonal icon and you’ve got attention before you even pitch the story.

K-beauty brand Then I Met You leaned straight into that with a pastel-hued ice cream truck parked outside Sephora SoHo. Visitors were treated to free skincare samples, heart-shaped ice pops, and one-on-one time with founder Charlotte Cho. It wasn’t plastered with “Summer Sale!” graphics; it was just summer in the way people actually experience it: street-level, a little unexpected, and highly photogenic.

3. Build a Summer Identity That Doesn’t Expire in August

If you own a seasonal mood, own it like it’s a timeshare. Make it part of your everyday brand language, not just the copy on your summer drop. Whether it’s a scent, a shade, or a sensory hit, turn it into the thing people reach for when the season’s long gone and they’re desperate for a fix.

Sol de Janeiro is the perfect example. Their “smells like vacation” DNA runs through everything; from the iconic Brazilian Bum Bum Cream to their expanding fragrance mist range. Yes, their biggest spikes happen in summer, but they’ve trained their audience to crave that Copacabana scent in the dead of winter. One spritz and you’re mentally horizontal on a beach chair, and that hit of dopamine is why they stay in carts year-round.

4. Move Fast on Seasonal Micro-Moments

Summer culture shifts fast; one day it’s all heatwave warnings, the next it’s wall-to-wall festival coverage, and by Wednesday, TikTok’s decided toasted makeup is the look. If you can’t keep pace, you’re not just late, you’re invisible.

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That means having a seasonal “reactive kit” ready: pre-approved copy, high-res imagery, and expert quotes you can send within hours. That way, when the heat hits, you can land in Refinery29 the very next day with a “melt-proof makeup” feature because you have everything ready to go. The competition? Still waiting on approvals.

Speed is a PR superpower in summer, the difference between being in the story and reading it from the sidelines.

5. Program Your Summer Like a Festival Lineup

One-off summer campaigns get a spike and then fade. The brands with staying power treat summer like a series of waves — each one building on the last. Pride Month, Fourth of July, music festivals, back-to-school… every few weeks is another opportunity to surface in seasonal coverage and reach a slightly different audience.

You don’t need to launch a whole new product every time. Just slap on a new hook. Travel-sized SPF? Suddenly it’s “festival armor.” Brow gel? Now it’s “heatwave-proof.” Your regular skincare kit? Boom — “post-vacation rehab” for faces that spent two weeks slow-roasting.

The goal is to stay culturally visible for the entire summer cycle so that when Q4 hits, your audience already feels like they’ve been in a conversation with you for months.

The TL;DR

Summer PR that sticks isn’t about louder campaigns, it’s about louder presence in culture.  Layer in real-time reactions and a multi-touchpoint seasonal plan, and you’ve got more than a summer push, you’ve got a year-round revenue driver.

Ready to turn your summer campaign into a main-character moment? Let’s build something people post about for weeks, and buy from for months. Book your strategy call →