Sunscreen brand Vacation was perhaps unsurprisingly conceptualized when its founders were on vacation.

“We spent a lot of time on the beach, drinking piña coladas, wearing a lot of sunscreen and we just got talking one day about why is sunscreen so boring when it’s used in moments that are anything but,” said cofounder Lach Hall, who was speaking at the WWD Beauty CEO Summit.

“We wondered, with a bit of creativity, could we create a sunscreen brand that wasn’t a chore to wear, something you actually look forward to wearing, something you want to pose with, something you want to tell your friends about, and something like your favorite book or sunglasses that would actually enhance the moment in the sun.”

But while being conceptualized on vacation is perhaps obvious, the secret sauce is less so.

“[There’s] a quote about Jimmy Buffett, the musician behind the Margaritaville brand, that’s actually been a really big inspiration to us. His biographer, Ryan Wyatt, said Jimmy Buffett didn’t just sell music. He sold the state of mind, an illusion of permanent vacation, and his genius was that he never let you see the scaffolding behind it,” said Hall. “With Vacation, that’s the dirty little secret behind what we do. For all of the fun, escapist branding that we have, all the Willy Wonka type products, the dirty little truth is that behind it all the scaffolding is actually just very traditional, very boring, very methodical and meticulous, strategic marketing.”

Research into the history of marketing around sunscreen became key to Hall’s strategy.

“When we looked into the history of the category, we found out that fun was actually the dominant positioning in the category in the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, ’50s when it was all about tanning,” he said. “In the ’90s, that all shifted when we learned of the dangers of tanning and the positioning of the brand became a lot more clinical. So our thought was people are on board with wearing sunscreen now they want to look after their skin, it’s time to have fun again with it.”

That thinking led to fun nostalgic designs, combined with effective formulas. Think the Classic Whip — an SPF 30 sunscreen with a whipped cream-like consistency, and Orange Gelée, based on the iconic Bain de Soleil products of the ’70s.

“People see our products as collectible and end up taking multiple items down the beach,” said Hall. “Most importantly, when using our product, it really sparks that joy and gets people to talk and write about us and take photos, so much so that we get about 5 million views per week from TikTok and social media.”