Cornetto Blue: How to Turn a Brand Color into a Memory of Summer?
For brands, color is often considered only as a part of the visual identity. However, in strong brands, color carries much more than just the logo; It can evoke an era, an emotion, or even a specific season. "Cornetto Blue", developed by Cornetto together with Pantone Color Institute, moves from this point. With this collaboration, the blue tone that the brand has used for a long time is no longer just an element of the corporate identity, but is transformed into an independent color associated with summer. Cornetto Blue; It places color itself at the center of the campaign, combining visual associations that everyone can easily recognize, such as sea, sky and hot summer days, with the existing identity of the brand.
The idea here may seem quite simple at first glance. Cornetto is a brand that is already identified with blue, while Pantone is known for giving meaning to colors in a cultural and creative context. However, what makes the collaboration interesting is that the brand does not just “officialize” its own color; transforming that color into a new narrative space. Cornetto Blue does not act like a color code on the packaging. It is attempted to be transformed into a common visual symbol of summer memories, the beach, the sky and the feeling of warm weather. This greatly expands the role of color in brand identity.
From Brand Color to Cultural Code
Strong use of color is one of the oldest but still most effective tools of branding. We can recognize some brands only by their colors without seeing their names. This situation is not a coincidence; Repeated visual use over the years creates a strong bond between the brand and the color in the consumer's mind. In this sense, Cornetto's blue color is not just a decorative choice. It is one of the important parts of the brand's bond with the feeling of summer, freshness and coolness.
Pantone collaboration adds another layer to this existing relationship. Because naming a color specifically turns it from an ordinary design decision into a talkable concept. Once you say “Cornetto Blue” you are no longer just describing a specific shade; You are also describing an area of emotion that the brand is trying to embrace.
From this perspective, the main success of the campaign lies in re-signifying a visual element that already belongs to the brand, rather than creating a new color. Instead of saying "our color is blue", Cornetto establishes a wider emotional field such as "the blue of summer is better with us".
Thus, color ceases to be a passive part of the identity and becomes the main idea of the campaign.
Color Turns into a Design System with Better in Blue Collection
It is also important that the project is not limited to just color announcements. The inclusion of 10 international designers, artists and digital producers within the scope of the "Better in Blue Collection" takes Cornetto Blue from an abstract brand idea to physical and visual applications.
The creative approach here is quite clever. The collection focuses on the small but annoying problems of summer that everyone knows. Very ordinary situations such as a plastic beach chair sticking to the skin, playing cards getting wet or sand getting all over the bag are addressed and designers reinterpret them. Thus, the campaign is not trying to solve problems that are too big or ambitious; On the contrary, it is nourished by everyday experiences where everyone can say “yes, this is really happening”.
This detail makes the campaign more human.
Because design is often explained through large and perfect objects. However, creativity here is based on the idea of making the little inconveniences of summer a little more fun and a little more functional. Cornetto Blue is the common visual language of all these works.
The result is not a single commercial, but a system in which different creative disciplines unite around the same brand color.
The inclusion of product designers, industrial designers, 3D artists and digital manufacturers using artificial intelligence tools in the same collection strengthens the project's relationship with the current design world. Because today design disciplines are much more intertwined than before. Physical product design and 3D visualization, fashion and digital art, AI and classical design processes can be used together in the same campaign. Cornetto's bringing together different production styles using the same color, instead of imposing a single aesthetic language, takes the campaign to a more contemporary place.
Why Are Pantone Collaborations So Valuable for Brands?
An important reason why brand collaborations with Pantone attract attention is that color ceases to be a technical value and turns into a cultural story. When a brand announces a new shade on its own, it can often remain design news. When Pantone is involved, color is presented within a broader creative context.
Here an important communication advantage emerges for brands.
You don't have to explain a new product.
You don't have to explain a new packaging.
You don't even have to change the product itself.
You can create a completely new campaign space by reframing a single element within your existing identity.
Cornetto Blue is one of the good examples of this.
The brand already had a blue color.
He already had a relationship with Yaz.
The ice cream category was already naturally associated with coolness and warm weather.
Pantone collaboration brings all these under one name and brings new value to communication.
I think there's a very important lesson here for marketing: Not every campaign needs to invent something new. Sometimes reinventing one of your existing brand assets can yield much stronger results.
Brands have accumulated a multitude of visual and verbal assets over the years, such as logos, colors, typography, packaging and slogans. However, most of the time these elements turn into passive rules that live only in guideline documents. In the example of Cornetto, brand color is again turned into an active communication tool.
Why Is Summer such a Powerful Visual Field for Brands?
Another reason for Cornetto Blue's powerful work is that the summer season already has very distinct visual codes. Sea blue, clear skies, sunny yellow, sand tones, ice cream colors, beach textiles and bright accessories are the almost universal visual language of summer communication.
What Cornetto does is to claim one of these codes.
However, instead of an aggressive claim such as "blue is ours", it establishes a harmonious bond with the historical identity of the brand. Therefore, the color does not seem to be stuck to the brand; It already feels like it's been there for a long time.
This natural bond is very important in seasonal brand communication.
When a brand adds bright orange, neon green, or another color to its summer campaign just because it's on trend, it can create fleeting visual attention. But if this color is not associated with the brand's identity, there will be little left after the campaign is over.
Cornetto Blue is an element that can continue to live within the brand identity even after the campaign ends.
This makes the campaign more valuable than a short-term social media idea.
It is also noteworthy that Artificial Intelligence Manufacturers are included in the Collection
It is also important that the collection includes digital producers who use artificial intelligence tools. Because in the last few years, brands' relationship with AI has generally been discussed at two extremes: either artificial intelligence is described as if it will completely replace creative production, or it is completely rejected.
Cornetto's project shows a more natural approach.
AI is not what the campaign is about here.
It is not marketed as “a campaign by AI”.
One of those creative tools that only some manufacturers use.
I think this will be the model that the creative industry will gradually approach. Just as using Photoshop or 3D software is not the story of the campaign in itself, using AI will also become a normal part of the production process over time.
What is important is not the vehicle, but what the resulting idea adds to the brand.
Cornetto Blue's gathering of designers, artists, 3D producers and AI-supported creators under the same roof offers a very up-to-date creative approach in this respect.
Cornetto Actually Sells Summer Feelings More Than Ice Cream
When we look at this campaign from a broader perspective, we see that the product is increasingly taking the back seat in Cornetto's communication strategy.
Of course, there is an ice cream brand.
However, communication does not revolve around the "taste of the product", "its content" or "the feature of its cone".
The brand tries to embed itself directly into the summer experience.
Sea.
The sky.
Beach.
Friends.
Little summer problems.
Design.
Color.
All this creates a cultural world around the product.
A significant portion of strong FMCG brands already try to do this in the long term. Because product features can be easily imitated by competitors. However, the bond established in the consumer's mind with a certain emotion, period or behavior is much more difficult to imitate.
This is exactly why Cornetto Blue should not be considered just a “new shade of blue”.
The brand is actually trying to say this:
If summer has a specific blue, let it have something to do with Cornetto.
This is a pretty powerful brand goal.
Designer Collaborations Remove Brands from Being Advertisers
Another strength of the Better in Blue Collection is that it does not leave the brand as just an advertiser.
In the classic advertising model, the brand gives a brief, the agency prepares the advertisement, and the user watches the advertisement.
The structure here is different.
The brand creates a theme.
Designers produce on this theme.
The works produced become shareable cultural content on their own.
The audience also follows creative ideas instead of just seeing product advertisements.
This model is especially effective for brands that want to engage with fashion, design, music and youth culture.
Because it turns the brand into a part of the creative world, instead of directly telling the user “buy our product”.
You are looking at Cornetto content to see a design object.
You are following the campaign because you are curious about a 3D work.
Thus, the line between advertising and content becomes a little more blurred.
And that's exactly what brands are looking for in today's social media environment.
The Power of Color in Brand Identity Increases Again
In recent years, we see that brand identities are becoming increasingly simpler. Logos are getting smaller, typographies are getting closer together, websites are using similar grid systems, and brands are starting to visually resemble each other in some areas due to the technical requirements of digital platforms.
In this environment, color becomes a very important differentiator again.
Because color can be perceived even faster than the logo.
As the user scrolls the screen, he sees a world of colors before reading the name of the brand.
Therefore, it is no longer enough for brands to just say “this is our corporate color code”. How color will be used, what emotion it will be associated with and what cultural area it will be made into are also strategic issues.
Cornetto Blue is a good example of this approach.
Color is no longer a guideline value.
It becomes a campaign name.
It becomes the common language of a collection.
It turns into a summertime story.
And most importantly, it tries to establish a new connection between the brand and a certain emotion in the consumer's mind.
Result: Cornetto Blue is More than a Color, a Brand Memory Project
Cornetto Blue, developed in collaboration with Cornetto and Pantone Color Institute, may seem like a fun summer campaign at first glance. However, when we look at the brand and design side of the business, it is possible to see a more comprehensive strategy.
Cornetto redefines the blue color it already has.
With the collaboration of Pantone, this color gives a cultural weight.
With the Better in Blue Collection, it spreads color to different design disciplines.
He turns the little problems of summer into the starting point of creative ideas.
And it does all this without explaining the features of the product at length.
Therefore, the strongest aspect of the campaign is not in the sentence "Cornetto has introduced a new color."
How can a brand make its color valuable again? In his answer to the question.
One of the biggest problems of brands today is that they feel obliged to constantly produce new content. New campaign, new slogan, new visual world, new trend, new idea... However, sometimes the most powerful creative resource may already be in the hands of the brand.
A logo.
One character.
An old slogan.
An iconic packaging.
Or a blue that has been used for years, as in the case of Cornetto.
The task of good creative strategy is not always to create something new. Sometimes it means looking again at an element that the brand has had for years and giving it a new meaning.
This is exactly what Cornetto Blue does: Rather than choosing a color, embracing a color and placing it in the collective memory of summer.
Nur Oğuz