Sober October Email Campaign Design

Designed a seasonal campaign email for a functional drink brand, built around Sober October.

The email turns a cultural moment into a buying moment. It frames the month as a challenge worth taking on, positions the product as the ritual that makes it easier, and uses a free-shipping threshold to encourage customers to stock up for all 31 days.

Sober October is a month when a large number of people actively step away from alcohol. For a brand built around keeping the drink ritual without the alcohol, it’s the most relevant moment in the calendar.

The opportunity was to show up as a partner for the month. The email needed to meet people at the start of their challenge and give them something to reach for when the usual Friday drink isn’t an option.

Seasonal campaigns often:

Mention the occasion in the subject line and change nothing else

Drop a generic discount onto a standard product grid

Miss the emotional reason people take part in the first place

This email needed to:

Make Sober October feel like an active, motivating challenge

Show the product as a natural part of the month

Encourage a larger first order to cover the full 31 days

Keep the brand’s playful, social tone

The email was structured as a progression from motivation to action:

Frame the challenge → Invite subscribers to take part

Introduce the support → Position the flavours as the ritual for the month

Make it simple → A three-step routine that ends in a purchase

The CTA language was written around participation, so buying reads as joining something: Join the Ritual → Shop Sober October.

Purpose: Frame the month as a challenge and capture attention

The headline names the moment directly, and the subhead, “Do you have what it takes?”, turns it into a personal challenge. The CTA sits above the fold.

Below it, a bold visual of wine being poured across large “NO DRINKING” typography creates tension. The temptation the month asks people to resist is shown, so the product’s role is clear before it appears.

Purpose: Introduce the range and the incentive

A soft, bordered container presents the core message: eight flavours, each with its own taste and a controlled buzz to carry the month. The free-shipping threshold of $100+ is set in bold as the closing line, followed by a second CTA.

Purpose: Reduce friction with a clear routine

A three-step section breaks the month into simple actions: mix and match flavours, spend $100+ for free shipping and stay stocked, then squeeze, sip, and check off the days. Each step is paired with an illustration, giving the section an editorial feel.

Purpose: Turn interest into product choice

Four flavours are shown as served cocktails, followed by a final “Shop Sober October” CTA to close the email.

Brand palette carried into the headline, with red and deep green splitting “Sober October” for emphasis

Bold sans-serif for the hero, paired with a serif display face for the ritual section

Oversized background typography in the hero to create depth and tension

Rounded, bordered containers on warm cream backgrounds for a calm, readable rhythm

Hand-drawn style illustrations mixed with photography in the steps section

Product shown as finished drinks in glassware, consistent with the brand’s wider campaigns

Challenge framing to create emotional buy-in before the offer

Participation-led CTAs so purchasing feels like joining

Free-shipping threshold to raise order value, framed around staying stocked for the full month

A three-step routine to make the path from interest to checkout obvious

Three CTA placements at the hero, after the offer, and after the product grid, so there’s always a next step within reach

The campaign shows how a seasonal moment can be designed as a complete story, with a challenge, a solution, and a clear way to start. It gives the brand a reason to email during its most relevant month and gives subscribers a reason to buy for the whole of it.

Role: Email Designer Tools: Figma Project Type: Client Work — Seasonal Email Campaign Design (Brand Anonymised Under NDA)

200-character description: A Sober October campaign email for a DTC functional drink brand, framing the month as a challenge and the product as the ritual that gets you through it. Client under NDA.

The third step is labelled “STEP 2.” It should be “STEP 3.”

“Sob-Tober” in the section title doesn’t match “Sob-tober” in step 3. Pick one spelling and use it in both places.

The phone mockup in the banner has distorted the logo into “MYCOLLAN.” It also has the full NDA branding issue, so remove or blur it along with the logo in the email, the bottle labels, and the mycolean.com footer link.