Innovation Spotlight: Vacation’s Classic Whip SPF 50

Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.

This month we researched Vacation’s Classic Whip SPF 50, a whipped sunscreen from a personal care startup. Read on to get our analysis of the product's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.

Vacation, a personal care startup that began selling in 2021, was born out of the pandemic. It has one key mission: Put the fun back in sunscreen. 

It has a distinctive visual brand, evoking 1980s beach culture in everything it does. From its retro packaging, to its vintage photography style and its Instagram posts that often look like magazine ads — the brand feels like it’s living in the past. 

If you’ve never heard of the brand before, we recommend you quickly browse its website and you’ll immediately understand the brand’s identity. 

One of the brand’s top-selling products launched in 2022 — the Classic Whip sunscreen. Packaged exactly like an edible whipped cream, the whipped sunscreen offers all the benefits of a traditional sunscreen, but with all the fun of a new type of application.  

This summer the brand released a version of the Classic Whip with SPF 50, based on consumer demand for the popular product with even more sun protection. 

The brand describes it as, “A ‘lighter-than-air’ sunscreen featuring an authentic ‘tilt valve’ actuator that produces perfect, star-shaped mountains of foam, inspired by everyone’s favorite after dinner indulgence.”

Launching a startup in any CPG category is quite an undertaking. There’s a lot of competition, primarily from established players that have more brand awareness, bigger advertising budgets and more shelf space. Getting shoppers’ attention and encouraging trial of a new brand isn’t easy. 

We like Vacation’s approach of standing out visually with a clear brand identity that’s immediately recognizable. The brand has built a fanbase of people who love the brand and get excited about its new product launches. 

And while there are many methods to apply sunscreen on the market (creams, sprays, roll-ons, etc.), we’ve never seen whipped before! So it certainly stands out.  

What do consumers think about the SPF 50 version of the Classic Whip? And what do they think about the whipped sunscreen in general? Let’s find out!

1. Startup CPG brands need to offer something different from established players: The average shopper doesn’t do a lot of research before they buy a commonly purchased product like sunscreen. They’re likely to buy from brands they’ve heard of before — unless a new brand can offer something that really stands out. That’s what Vacation’s Classic Whip does. It’s a completely new type of sunscreen application and consistency that people are likely to share online and the press is likely to write about. Pair that with the elements of a great sunscreen (like being easy to apply, high SPF, light texture, etc.) and a unique brand identity (more on that later) — and you have a successful formula for getting attention in a crowded category. 

2. Appealing to early adopters is a great sign of growth potential: While Classic Whip 50 doesn’t have broad appeal, it does resonate strongly with early adopters, which is a great sign. Early adopters are typically trend-sensitive and seek out new, unique or improved products. If they respond positively, it suggests the product has differentiation and value that stands out in a saturated market. And early adopters are often opinion leaders in their social circles — their endorsement can help drive word-of-mouth, social proof and even viral growth.

3. Unique brand identities can inspire engaged fanbases: Vacation is a brand that visually stands out from any other brand in the category. The brand commits to its 80s beach culture aesthetic in all its consumer touchpoints from its packaging, website, digital ads and Instagram posts. It inspires people to want to be part of the brand experience. As a result, Vacation has a group of passionate fans on its social accounts who have expressed that Classic Whip SFP 50 is something they would buy. Developing it into a real product was a no-brainer!

Vacation’s Classic Whip SPF 50 scores in the top 2% of personal care innovations in the US on breakthrough potential and in the top 50% on trial potential. 

Sitting in the “seed and grow” section of our potential quadrant means the limited edition flavor and supporting range is seen as highly unique and distinctive but appeals to some people more than others. 

For something a bit unusual like a whipped sunscreen, this is a great result! Especially considering Vacation is a startup brand that doesn’t have the brand recognition of some larger brands in the category. 

Let’s unpack more about why this innovation scores this way.

We use two key measures to determine breakthrough potential:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

2. How superior a product is compared to what’s already available in market (advantage)

Vacation Classic Whip SPF 50 is seen as significantly more distinctive than other US personal care innovations (Distinctiveness T2B: 84.0% vs 64.5% norm). All groups we looked at saw the innovation as significantly more distinctive than the norm. 

Sunscreen is used by consumers of all ages and genders, so everyone is familiar with the category enough to know that whipped sunscreen is highly unique. 

But it’s not enough for an innovation to be different from other products on the market, it also has to be better than alternatives on the market. Vacation Classic Whip SPF 50 scores in line with personal care innovations for advantage (Advantage T2B: 53.8% vs. 50.7%), but several groups see it as more advantageous than others — specifically adults under 55, males, people who have bought sunscreen in the last three months and skin care early adopters.

While a whipped sunscreen is certainly unusual, it’s notable that consumers do think it’s credible that the sunscreen category can deliver this type of innovation (Category Believability T2B: 80.4% vs. 74.9%). It may be surprising (Surprise: 17% vs. 9% norm), but it’s still believable! 

Over half of respondents said they would be likely to purchase Vacation Classic Whip SPF 50 if it was available at a reasonable price, which is in line with the US personal care norm (Purchase Likelihood T2B: 56.1% vs. 57.4% norm).

But purchase likelihood is higher for certain groups, notably skin care early adopters (78.9%) and adults under 55 (65.1%).

We also analyzed a few variants for the Classic Whip SPF 50. Vacation’s original whipped sunscreen was the Classic Whip SPF 30. Earlier this year it launched its Glow SPF 30, which includes shimmer, and there is also an SPF 50 version of the Glow. 

The Glow SPF 50 is the most popular of the three variants, with 43% saying they would be likely to buy compared to 26% who would not buy — indicating that the higher SPF is most appealing to people. It’s one more reason it was smart for the brand to offer a higher SPF of the Classic Whip.

Consumers expressed enthusiasm for the product’s clean ingredients, high SPF and playful application. However, the packaging and texture emerged as polarizing — some loved it while others were uninterested or found it a bit gimmicky. 

Unsurprisingly, respondents repeatedly called out how innovative and different the product is.

Respondents said things like: 

• "I love that it comes out like a whip and it's fun and new. I like that it has banana extract as well, I think that's really unique."

• "It's different. Most lotions are heavy, as a mousse I think this would feel lighter on my skin."

• "It is different looking, has a spf of 50, which is great"

• "It appears to be very soft and creamy. Comforting."

• "I like the retro look of the bottle. Looks like when things were made in a way for the bottle to last."

• "I like how it looks like whipped cream, I also like how it is a stronger spf. The packaging is also very cool and refreshing."

• "The packaging is adorable and I love the concept of it looking like whipped cream."

• "The packaging looks very aesthetic."

Respondents most often associated Classic Whip SPF 50 with easy application (52%). They also associated the product with effective sun protection, safety for daily use and trendy appeal. 

Some other common themes that emerged were around reliability, playfulness, luxury feel, mess-free use and non-stickiness.

We’re impressed with Vacation’s distinctive brand and this is certainly an interesting product. It’s a great example of a brand listening to customers to deliver features they’re asking for — in this case, higher SPF. 

Another way to listen to customers and create innovative new concepts is through Zappi’s connected Innovation System. Get a demo to learn more.

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