Campaigning Outsmart the Summer Slump: How to Reverse-Engineer Your Summer Campaigns Elizabeth Holloway Campaigning 5 mins read April 14, 2025 Blog Campaigning Outsmart the Summer Slump: How to Reverse-Engineer Your Summer Campaigns Outsmart the Summer Slump: How to Reverse-Engineer Your Summer Campaigns - Elizabeth Holloway Table of Contents Start early, test early Data should be your summer compass It’s all about that summer mindset! Channel platform-specific summer trends Don’t forget to geo-personalize What’s the takeaway? Too many marketers make the mistake of treating summer like a “throwaway” season, citing poor sales and low engagement as reasons to write the whole season off. The problem isn’t that people aren’t shopping in the summer, it’s a matter of timing. Strategic summer campaigns don’t start in July—they start in spring. Timing isn’t the only thing many marketers get wrong about summer. They often fail to take advantage of the different mindset and behaviour of consumers during the warmer month, and more importantly, don’t learn from past summer campaigns. But you don’t have to make those same mistakes. Today, we’re going to talk about how to reverse-engineer your summer campaigns to turn the summer slump into a summer blow out. We’ll go over when to launch, data-driven strategies for planning, how to take advantage of vacation-mindset shoppers, and the importance of geo-based personalization. Start early, test early Your goal should be to have your summer campaigns dialed in by June. That means you’re planning, testing, and creating assets in spring. There are a lot of advantages for starting this early. A big one is that spring is probably the most productive quarter for your teams. By summer, you’ve got team members taking vacations, which disrupts scheduling and can bog down decision-making. Starting sooner also gives you more space to test and refine your messaging to better resonate with your target audience. The longer runway means you can adjust your strategy based on initial results and still be able to build momentum and gain traction well before the peak of summer. This extra time makes all the difference in generating sustained success throughout the season. Data should be your summer compass The most effective strategies are informed by data. Specifically, we’re talking about analyzing past performance for lessons and key takeaways. Before you get planning, take the time to compile a retrospective report on last year’s summer campaigns to guide your strategy and help you avoid repeating any missteps made in past campaigns. By pulling platform performance data from previous summer campaigns and reviewing metrics like engagement dips, ad performance, heat maps, mobile usage, you’ll be able to plan around known pitfalls and better target your messaging. It’s all about that summer mindset! Consumer behaviour is wildly different during the summer. People are on the go, taking vacations, hosting backyard cookouts, hitting the town or the beach, and more importantly, they’re distracted. That doesn’t mean they aren’t shopping—you just need to take a different approach to grabbing and keeping their attention. That starts with taking a mobile-first approach to creating collateral that prioritizes vertical formats and muted audio. You want short-form videos, bold CTAs, localised messaging, and visuals that are designed for bright screens and outdoor browsing. Make bite-sized storytelling your specialty this summer. Channel platform-specific summer trends There are interesting things that happen across the different social media platforms during the summer that are worth paying attention to. For example, because you’re launching your campaigns before summer really kicks into gear, you can take advantage of the “summer prep” trend on platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram. Whether it’s planning DIY home renovations, or getting “beach-bod” ready, you can appeal to people’s desire to plan ahead. Conversely, on Meta’s platforms, the cost per mille (CPM) on ad placements tends to drop mid-summer. This gives you the opportunity for more cost-effective retargeting, which can make all the difference in hitting your summer sales targets. And for platforms like LinkedIn, you’ll see better engagement if you move away from purely conversion-oriented content, and instead focus on thought leadership and visibility during the mid-year slow down in productivity. Don’t forget to geo-personalize Summer is not a universal event. While it might be summer time for your audience in the northern hemisphere, you do not want to be serving that content to those in the southern hemisphere while they’re knee-deep in winter. Equally important, different countries and communities have different summer traditions and events. For example, as a Montreal-based company, we know that July 1st isn’t just Canada Day, it’s also the city-wide moving day. So, advertising localized for the city will feature moving related themes and promotions. Similarly, we also celebrate Pride in August, rather than June, which means local Pride campaigns run later in the summer than in the rest of North America. These differences may not seem like a big deal, but they go a long way in making your audience feel seen. Personalization is all about creating a tailored customer experience, so it’s important that you centre these kinds of region-specific nuances to how people experience and enjoy the summer months. What’s the takeaway? The best summer campaigns don’t happen by accident—they’re the result of thoughtful planning, early testing, and a clear understanding of how your audience thinks, feels, and behaves during the warmer months. With the groundwork laid, you’re not just reacting to summer trends—you’re shaping them. So before you hit publish, ask yourself: have we learned from last year’s wins and missteps? Is our creative built for distracted, mobile-first consumers? Are we leaving enough room to iterate and optimize? And most importantly, are we showing up with messaging that reflects where our audiences actually are—geographically and mentally? If the answer is yes, you’re not just ready for summer—you’re ready to own it. 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