Sprite’s Immersive Summer experience: A Global Campaign Amplifying Music, Culture, and Data-Driven Creativity: This summer, Sprite turned up the heat—and the refreshment, with an electrifying global campaign that put music, cultural connection, and sensory experiences at the heart of its identity. I had the pleasure of traveling to Vietnam to witness the vibrant activation unfold on the shores of Da Nang Beach. The experience brought Sprite’s bold vision to life, blending music, immersive refreshment zones, and the energy of rising Gen Z talent.
Sprite’s Immersive Summer experience: Sprite Fest in Da Nang wasn’t just another beachside event. It was a full-sensory celebration of youth culture, built around music, high-energy experiences, and, of course, ultimate refreshment. From giant water slides and cooling stations to a lineup of emerging artists. The activation created a space where creativity and community could thrive under the summer sun.
The event was carefully curated to align with high-traffic Gen Z areas and moments of peak cultural relevance, further showcasing Sprite’s commitment to delivering not just a beverage, but a lifestyle. This activation also tied into another major campaign moment: ‘Hurts Real Good with Sprite’, which positions the drink as the perfect pairing for bold, spicy foods; cementing its place in the hearts (and taste buds) of flavour-chasing fans worldwide!
I sat down with Oana Vlad, Sprite’s Global VP, to explore the creative thinking behind the campaign, why Vietnam and other global hotspots were chosen, and how Sprite continues to evolve as a brand rooted in both culture and product innovation, and here is what she had to say!
As the Global VP of Sprite, what was your personal mission going into this campaign? What did you want to make sure it achieved, not just creatively, but culturally?
Well, first of all, before having the chance to work on Sprite, I was a huge fan of the brand and the drink. One of the things I’ve always loved about Sprite is its connection to culture, because anywhere you go around the world, it’s a brand that’s been shaped through culture—whether it’s hip hop, basketball, pop—depending on the market.
That’s something I think is really important to preserve and continue expanding for the brand moving forward. So when you look at this summer activation and what you see here in Da Nang, that comes through really clearly. You see the focus on music, on serving as a platform for rising talent that you’ll watch perform later on tonight.
But the other thing that makes me really excited is Sprite never just does culture for the sake of culture. We always try to pair what we call cultural edge with ultimate refreshment—because Sprite is ultimate refreshment with cultural edge. When we say ultimate refreshment, we mean it’s an intense experience—it’s that lemon-lime cut through the carbonation.
This is a product whose number one social content is people describing how it tastes—from lightning to jumper cables to electricity, and some other things as well. What makes me really excited about what you’ll see today is that it’s the best example of that two-pronged thing: the ultimate refreshment—you’ll see it through the showers, through the giant slides that immerse you in the pools—and then the music piece.
That, for me, is not just key to summer and what you’ll see today, but it’s everything about the brand. Whether it’s product innovation, it needs to deliver on refreshment with edge. You don’t see us launch any products without a collaboration that’s relevant to a local market.
You don’t see us entering the space of food by just talking about how great food and spicy food and Sprite pair together, you see us partner with other brands that are already very relevant and meaningful in that space, like Taki’s, Bulldak. So that duality of the product and the edge is what makes me super excited about the future of the brand.
Sprite is a summer staple, but this year feels different. What was the vision behind evolving from a drink to a full-on global experience?
I think, you know, one key piece for us is to always look at how people expect to engage with products and brands, and what delivers meaning to them, an experience they’re going to remember and want to come back for. So of course, for us, storytelling through audiovisual content is important, and great marketing is important.
But more and more, what fans expect is really interesting and unique experiences that they can discover, experiences that create a memory and an emotional connection. That’s why things like live experiences matter. And it’s not just beach festivals—it’s music festivals, activations in urban hotspots where it’s crowded, where it’s hot. It’s not just here, right? It’s a global phenomenon that’s really, really important.
The campaign taps into very real summer struggles, from scorching car seats to hot sand. How did these super relatable moments inspire the creative direction?
I think always for us, inspiration starts with people. It’s by being curious about people and trying to understand what may be unmet needs or barriers to just having the best summer—or the best day ever, that helps us hopefully solve a problem or address a need for them. So we’re always looking—whether it’s through social listening, through consumer insights, or speaking with our consumers, at what some of those things are that get in the way of having the best summer.
Heat is definitely one of them, which is why you see that content and the very relatable moments you mention. The other thing is that a lot of people think of summer as the ultimate season when anything is possible, but the reality is, things can get in the way. Sometimes teenagers have to work a job during the summer, or they have to train, or they take another course—so it’s not always that epic, epic season. And so, that’s where for us, providing access to experiences like this is really important.
For example, today where you’ll go is open access, and in other markets it may not be open, but through our connected path we offer tickets and access to experiences like this. It’s really important to make sure that—whether it’s through the product experience itself or through the cultural connection—we can add value to people.
What does ‘refreshment’ mean to Sprite beyond just the beverage — especially in the context of this campaign?
Yeah, I love this. I love this question. I think you hear me talk about ultimate refreshment, about the product, because without the best product, that’s where it begins and ends. But in addition to the ultimate refreshment, Sprite is about a fresh point of view. So authenticity, progressiveness, being bold, these are values that have been the essence of the brand, and they continue to be the essence of the brand moving forward.
We want to deliver this fresh point of view by serving as a platform to the talent that we’re collaborating with, by heroing people who have convictions, are self-manifestors in all our work, and by living the brand values. So ultimate refreshment, for me, means refreshing the world of course through the drink, but also hopefully refreshing the world through originality and new experiences.
How did you choose where in the world Sprite should show up this summer — and what made those locations key to the campaign?
Yeah, I think one of my favourite parts of my job is the fact that you get to work with a global brand—but a global brand doesn’t exist without being rooted in the local markets, right? Culture is formed from the ground up, and then, of course, it spreads and connects across markets. What’s important to us is that we have a point of view of what the brand is. We know we want to be in the space of music and live experiences.
The beautiful decision of where to activate and who to partner with is done in collaboration with our local markets, who understand the pulse of culture locally. So this Da Nang beach activation was picked because of where the high-traffic Gen Z areas are, where most tourists are, where there would be interest and demand in an event like this—and also where people around the country would want to travel to. Ideally, again, it’s about trying to offer as accessible an experience as possible.
How do you see Sprite continuing to tap into real-time culture beyond this summer?
I love this Topic! [Laughs] I am very excited about what Sprite will be doing with spicy food. I mean, I think spicy food is a cultural phenomenon. It’s about expression and experimentation. You see it in social, you see it in the numbers—with more than half of Gen Z having spicy food. So I think we have some really exciting things coming there this year, with work that’s again using partnerships in a very fun way, but also experimenting in digital and social. This is something you’re going to continue to see new news around in the future. So I’m very, very excited about that space.
I’m also excited about how we’re pushing the boundaries on innovation. Because just like, you know, we don’t just like the product, it can’t be just refreshment without a fresh take. It’s the same with innovation. We don’t just launch a new product. First, for a lot of our innovations this year, we were inspired by what’s happening in culture and in viral social content, which actually informed the products we ended up launching at scale, in both Sprite Chill and Sprite Plus T.
But then, if you look at how those launches happen, they never happen absent a connection with culture. For example, Chill in Korea is launched in partnership with a rising K-pop star. Chill in China is launched similarly with a rising pop star. In the U.S., Sprite Plus T was done in partnership with Eastside Golf—that’s also the intersection of sports, streetwear, and progressiveness. So I think that makes me really excited, because I hope we can consistently always bring those two worlds together—the product and the world of culture.”
Sprite Fest was more than just a brand activation, it was a full-blown celebration of youth culture, bringing together music, food, and water fuelled fun in a way that felt both immersive and refreshing. From the high-energy performances from emerging K-pop artists to the cooling stations and slides. every element was thoughtfully designed to spark connection and create lasting memories. The atmosphere was electrifying, the vibe was authentic, and the experience delivered on Sprite’s promise of ultimate refreshment with cultural edge. If this year’s activation is any indication, Sprite Fest has all the ingredients to become an annual global staple, one that continues to champion creativity, community, and of course, keeping it cool.
Interview: Oana Vlad, Sprite Global VP
Photography: Sprite
Words: Nickeeba Archer
