Plum’s Akansha Baliga on why sunscreen marketing is no longer seasonal

In the last few years, sunscreen has undergone a dramatic transformation, from a functional summer product to a year-round skincare essential and cultural touchpoint driving online conversation and marketing innovation. Once a niche category largely associated with sunburn prevention, sunscreen is now emblematic of broader shifts in consumer awareness, digital influence, and beauty-first skincare adoption both in India and globally.

This shift has also altered when and how brands talk about sun protection. As Akansha Baliga, Marketing Lead at Plum, points out, sunscreen communication is no longer tied to peak summer months. “Skincare is not an impulse category. People take time to research and understand products,” she says. With sunscreen now embedded into daily routines, seasonality has weakened. “Sunscreen is no longer seasonal. People use it year-round, even in winter,” Baliga notes. 

Market data reflects this shift. The Indian sunscreen market, long underpenetrated, was valued between $481 million and $832 million in 2025 and is projected to grow at over 9% CAGR to reach around $810.6 million by 2030, driven by rising awareness and year-round use.

According to Baliga, “The sunscreen category has grown faster than any other skincare sub-category we have seen over the past two years, driven by increased awareness of sun protection and a broader demographic, including men.” 

Baliga emphasises that the internet explosion of information fundamentally shifted consumer behaviour: “People started realising that they need to apply sunscreen and it is no longer a product only women use.” She notes that for many men, “sunscreen is the second product they use after face wash,” underscoring the category’s widening appeal.

For Plum, sunscreen now ranks among its top three categories. Baliga says, “Our leading sunscreen has almost doubled year-on-year. That mirrors what is happening in the category overall, which is also nearly doubling year-on-year. Sunscreen is performing very well for us.”

Globally, sun care and beauty categories have also seen an uptick in consumer conversations and expectations. Social media trends, particularly on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, have accelerated sunscreen adoption, contributed to a 17% rise in online sunscreen product sales, and diminished strict seasonal buying cycles as consumers shift toward daily routines supported by education and visual storytelling.

This rapid consumer shift has reshaped how brands position and promote sunscreens, especially online. Industry observers note that digital platforms, particularly Instagram, have become central to reframing sunscreen as self-care and an essential part of daily grooming, supported by influencer partnerships, educational content, and lifestyle storytelling.

Plum’s sunscreen strategy 

Digital and creator-led strategies underpin Plum’s approach to engaging sunscreen consumers. Baliga points out that younger consumers, especially those native to digital platforms, skip traditional media entirely. “All their information comes from the internet, and the same applies to us as a brand. Most of our marketing happens online, across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Google — largely through creators,” she adds. 

Plum’s marketing narrative shifts alongside consumer evolution. Baliga explains that early sunscreen demand centred on basic performance metrics, “Initially, consumers only cared about three things: no white cast, SPF 50, and a lightweight texture. Over time, that changed. People now understand that SPF 50 does not mean the same performance at all times, and that achieving no white cast is not easy.”

Responding to this, Plum developed its own internal standards under the “True SPF” framework to exceed conventional testing. The brand instituted rigorous in vitro and in vivo testing, committed to “only use proven filters,” and began batch-wise SPF verification for every sunscreen produced.

Creators form a critical layer in how this information is communicated. Baliga stresses that Plum’s creator partnerships are intentionally collaborative rather than scripted. “We do not dictate scripts,” she says. “We send products to creators in advance and ask them to use them in their own way. From there, we collaboratively decide how the product should be communicated to their audience. It is always a two-way process.”

For the True SPF initiative in particular, creators were also used as listening tools. “Sunscreen is a category where consumers have many questions,” Baliga explains. “When a creator asks their audience for queries, the responses are very different from when a brand asks.” These questions, she says, directly shaped the brand’s educational content around sunscreen myths, efficacy and testing.

This feedback loop extends beyond content into product decisions. “We actively listen to feedback,” Baliga says, citing instances where consumer complaints led to changes in packaging, including switching droppers to pump formats and fixing malfunctioning pumps. Such insights, she adds, help the brand evolve alongside its consumers.

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Plum also leverages educational content to make sunscreen approachable and engaging, acknowledging the need to balance scientific rigour with relatable formats. According to Baliga, the brand avoids fear-based messaging in favour of content that is informative yet enjoyable, a strategy reflected in its social media patterns and creator collaborations. 

This educational content often comes from the brand’s cofounders, R&D experts and internal teams, in addition to influencers. 

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Audience, geography and future growth

Plum’s core consumer base spans a wide age bracket, reflecting the brand’s attempt to balance scale with specificity. Baliga says that the brand’s audience broadly falls between 18 and 35-40 years, cutting across genders. At the same time, she notes that a single content approach does not work across this spectrum. “How different age groups consume content online varies significantly,” Baliga says, adding that Plum tailors its messaging and formats accordingly rather than treating younger and older consumers as a monolith.

Geographically, the brand’s growth is no longer concentrated in metro markets. Baliga points out that tier 1 and tier 2 cities are emerging as equally strong, if not faster-growing, contributors. “Growth is not limited to metros,” she says. “Tier 1 and tier 2 cities are growing at the same pace, if not faster.” She attributes this shift to widespread internet access, which has reduced information asymmetry, and to higher effective disposable incomes in non-metro markets. As Baliga explains, lower living costs often translate into greater spending power, while aspiration levels remain high. “These consumers are actively seeking better products,” she adds, underscoring the role of aspiration in driving demand beyond large urban centres.

Looking ahead, Plum’s growth strategy is closely tied to product innovation that keeps pace with rising consumer expectations. Baliga indicates that the brand is working on reformulated sunscreens alongside expansions into adjacent skincare categories such as glycolic toners. The focus, she suggests, is on strengthening performance standards while responding to a more informed audience that increasingly scrutinises efficacy, ingredients and claims rather than novelty alone.