Meet the Brands Partnering With The Summer I Turned Pretty to Reach Gen Z

Amazon Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty’s final season is well underway, and brands are eager to reach the show’s fans.

The third season of the show debuted on July 16 with two episodes, receiving 25 million viewers globally in the first week, according to Amazon. That’s a 40% increase in viewership compared to the second season’s performance in the same time period. Additionally, the show’s viewership tripled from Season 1 to Season 3 in the first seven days. 

As the show’s popularity has grown as the series comes to an end, Amazon snagged deals with brands including Catbird jewelry, apparel brand Solid & Striped, and Sour Patch Kids that go beyond product placement.

ADWEEK rounded up the brands featured in the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Catbird

Jewelry brand Catbird scored an integration into one of the most talked about moments of the show: Jeremiah’s proposal to Belly in the second episode. Jeremiah proposes with Catbird’s dainty Diamond Fizz Ring, which generated lots of online chatter about its slight size.

Leigh Plessner, Catbird’s chief creative officer, told ADWEEK that the brand knew that the ring was going to be used in the show, but seeing how it was used and received by audiences was a fun moment. Within a month of the episode airing, Catbird saw a 1,900% increase in pageviews for the ring on the brand’s ecommerce site, according to Catbird.

Belly also wears Catbird’s 100 Summers Gold Chain with a daisy charm in the show.

The partnership between Catbird and The Summer I Turned Pretty came about after Opening Ceremony cofounder and the show’s stylist Carol Lim DMed Plessner’s personal Instagram account. They then created a seven-piece jewelry collection that’s available on Catbird’s website. It includes a gold bracelet that reads Belly as well as a shell charm. 

Catbird has collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers, Laufey, Jenny Slate, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the past. The goal is for partnerships to come from a place of real connection to the collaborative project, said Plessner. For The Summer I Turned Pretty, Plessner felt that jewelry was a big part of the show’s story and of Belly’s style evolution.

“Something that’s really special about the show is that even though the main characters are of a certain age, the fan base is across generation and gender,” said Plessner. “While the theory of reaching young people is true, there’s so much more to it.”

Sour Patch Kids

Still, the show heavily skews towards Gen Z and teens—a core demographic that Sour Patch Kids uses to vet its partnerships, said John Vasington, senior brand manager of candy at Mondelez International.

“To have a show that’s so popular amongst that audience—and so naturally integrates our brands in a way that feels really resonant—had us very excited to make things official and become official partners for season three,” said Vasington.

Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish—both owned by Mondelez International—were organically included in the second season of the show when Conrad buys Belly Sour Patch Kids while Jeremiah buys her Swedish Fish.

“Each brother and their storyline up to that point in Season 2 really aligned with the brands and the storytelling there,” said Vasington.

He pointed to Jeremiah’s sweetness fitting with Swedish Fish. Conrad is more reserved before opening up embodying the sour then sweet taste of Sour Patch Kids. 

For Season 3, Mondelez released exclusive Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah packs of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish and watch party snack mixes. Ten thousand of the Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah packs were made to sell on Amazon. The packs are also for sale on teen-centric retailer IT’SUGAR. A handful of retailers including Krogers and Albertsons also received in-store displays featuring the Conrad and Jeremiah characters.

Solid & Striped

Solid & Striped’s integration into the third season of the show came from being organically part of the first season of the show when Belly wears two of the brand’s swimsuits. For Season 3, the apparel brand built a capsule collection with Lim. 

It’s the first time that Solid & Striped has done a brand integration and it felt like a natural fit for the brand, Ginger Lau, Solid & Striped’s design director, told ADWEEK.

“We chose to do it because Belly already wore Solid & Striped before we formalized the partnership,” said Lau. “We made sure that the pieces weren’t just placed, but felt like part of the storytelling.”

Solid & Striped’s products are available on the brand’s ecommerce site and on Amazon.

On social media, Solid & Striped noticed a surge in engagement about the show, especially among younger audiences, said Michelle Guiles, the brand’s COO. The collaboration drove 2.5 times higher engagement than the brand’s average social posts with notable increases in reach and follower count.

Coach 

Coach is also featured in the show, and is running traditional ads during breaks on the ad-supported tier of Prime Video.

The fashion brand also created a capsule line of bags inspired by the show. The collection of 21 pieces includes bag charms, a backpack, and quilted purses. Coach sold the products on its own ecommerce site as well as Amazon—although the collection is currently sold out on Amazon.

“It felt like a natural fit for Coach and Coachtopia because of the way the show’s themes of youth, transformation and self-discovery align with our brand values,” said Jennifer Yue, svp of strategy and consumer insights at Tapestry and Coach. “Our integration into the show has allowed us to be part of the story and create a cultural moment that resonates with Gen Z.”