We're somewhere in the middle now. Past the point where The Best Summer Ever was a plan on a calendar, and into the part where it's just... our summer. June came out of the gate fast — 12 Storybooks, the birth of the Barkast, and more new ideas than we probably had any business adding while the campaign was already running. 😂
July felt different. The launch energy had settled. The pace changed. But the campaign didn't stop growing.
Eight More Adventures ☀️
July took Roxy and Kylo through eight more adventures: Water Park • America's 250th Birthday • Block Party • Summer Blockbuster • Lazy River • Soccer Day • Binge Watch Day • Museum Day
We splashed down waterslides, celebrated America's 250th birthday, spent time with the neighbors, went to the movies, floated down a lazy river, played soccer, stayed home for a movie marathon, and finally followed Kylo's love of sharks all the way to the museum. On paper, that's eight more Storybooks. But by now, we knew better.
A Storybook wasn't just a Storybook anymore. There were teasers leading into it. Questions along the way. The Storybook itself. Then the Barkast, reminders, announcements and snippets that kept the adventure going after the last page. The world around each story was continuing to grow. And somewhere along the way, the stories themselves started changing too.
We Started Asking Different Questions
At the beginning of summer, a lot of our questions were simple: What's your favorite? Have you ever? What would you choose? There was nothing wrong with those questions. They invited people into the fun. But as July went on, we started wanting something more from them. Not just: Did you enjoy watching Roxy and Kylo do this?
But: Did their adventure make you want to do something too?
Grab an inner tube. Kick around a soccer ball. Make time for a movie marathon. Take someone you care about somewhere you know they'd love. The questions were slowly moving from simply talking about an experience to inviting someone to have one of their own. We didn't have every part of that figured out yet. But we were starting to understand that the story didn't necessarily have to end with Roxy and Kylo.
What Did the Adventure Leave Behind?
Something else was changing inside the Barkast. What Mattered was becoming more than a nice way to close an episode. The adventures were giving us different things to think about. Lazy River reminded us that Slowing Down Matters. Soccer Day gave us Teamwork Matters.
Binge Watch Day reminded us that Making Time Matters — and challenged the idea that enjoying summer always means getting out and doing more. Sometimes slowing down, getting comfortable and choosing to spend time together is what matters.
Then Museum Day became something even more personal. Roxy knew how much Kylo loved sharks. Taking him to see them wasn't just another activity to check off the summer list. It was about knowing someone well enough to understand what would make them happy. Knowing Someone Matters.
The activities were still fun. But increasingly, we were asking ourselves: What did this experience give them besides something to do?
The Bigger Ideas Were Starting to Show Up
That question brought us back to something we'd wanted these stories to explore from the beginning. Could an adventure help someone try something new or discover something about themselves? Could it help people connect or feel like they belong? Could it give someone a little direction — something they want to try, learn, pursue or care about? Could something Roxy and Kylo did inspire a small action that might make a difference to someone else?
Those ideas — Identity, Connection, Direction and Impact — were becoming more visible in the way we thought about the stories. Not every adventure needed to do everything. And we certainly didn't want Roxy and Kylo standing at the end of every Storybook delivering a life lesson. Nobody asked for Professor Kylo. 😂 The story still had to be a story. But we were learning that a simple summer adventure could carry something underneath it without losing the fun.
Halfway Through 🌻
On July 16, we stopped long enough to acknowledge something we don't always do very well around here: we were halfway through. We posted a Mid-Summer Update. By then, The Best Summer Ever had already become much more complicated than the campaign we'd imagined at the beginning. But it was also becoming more intentional.
The Storybooks had their job. The Barkast had its job. The questions were beginning to have a job. And the different pieces surrounding an adventure weren't just extra content anymore. We were slowly learning how each could help someone experience the story from a different angle.
We were building the campaign while simultaneously learning how we wanted the campaign to work.
And Then There's the Messy Middle
This is the part of any long project nobody puts in the highlight reel — the middle, when the idea has to hold up against actually doing it, day after day. In June, we created 12 Storybooks. In July, we created eight. That's still eight adventures in one month — while continuing to create all the pieces that now surrounded them. But the difference matters. The stories weren't getting simpler.
They were getting deeper while the production around them was getting bigger. And that meant the pace was getting harder to maintain. Some days we were thinking about what an adventure could mean. Other days we were thinking about what Roxy and Kylo would say about it afterward. We were thinking about questions for the Pack, Barkast conversations, What Mattered, the next Storybook, the next teaser...
...and occasionally wondering why we had given ourselves so many good ideas. 😂 June had already taught us that every story was becoming more than a story. July showed us what that actually meant.
It Was Holding Up — Just Differently
Some of what we'd imagined at the beginning of summer was changing. But that didn't necessarily mean the campaign wasn't working. In some ways, it meant the opposite. We were beginning to understand why we were making all of these pieces in the first place.
The goal wasn't to race through 40 activities just so we could say we'd done them. It was still what it had been from the beginning: Enjoy What Matters — One Moment at a Time.
Play. Explore. Laugh. Discover. Together. Experience summer with your whole self. And maybe, somewhere inside all that playing, tasting, splashing, moving, learning, laughing and spending time together, discover a little more about who you're becoming, who matters to you, what matters to you, and what you might do with that.
The middle wasn't as fast as the beginning. It wasn't as tidy, either. But the idea was holding up. Some days better than others. And we still had real ground left to cover before summer was done. More on where we landed soon. ☀️🐾
