TARGETING GEN-Z WITH A FULL SERVICE PARTNERSHIP FOR CROCS

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Strategy

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Creative

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Collabs

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Seeding

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Talent

• Strategy • Creative • Collabs • Seeding • Talent

I identified Crocs as an intriguing prospect for Highsnobiety and blindly reached out to their new CMO: How can we help cultivate ongoing relevance for your growing brand?

Crocs had experienced great brand momentum and was already on the journey of transitioning into a credible space. But to fuel their next chapter, Crocs needed strategies and campaigns to attack key growth areas, spanning everything from China and Japan, the metaverse, collaborations and creating an overall much richer picture of the global Gen-Z consumer.

We established a multi-year upfront partnership by collaborating directly with the executive leadership team at Crocs. Throughout this relationship, we have provided various services to the brand, including strategic workflows and global content campaigns.

Global Campaign: Crocs Curated_By

  • Crocs was looking to develop deeper cultural relevance through a global marketing campaign focused on 5 key markets.

    Highsnobiety teamed up with five artists in Crocs primary markets to bring their personalities to life by using Crocs Sandals as a canvas to express themselves and celebrate their eclectic personalities.

    This was brought to life through a custom hub on Highsnobiety, which allowed users to dive deeper into the artist’s thought process and identity. Additionally, the products were seeded across five markets which expanded the awareness and relevance of the product across the globe.

    All assets were provided as whitelabel to Crocs and were utilized across both their O&O channels, displayed in Crocs stores, as well as on third party retail partners.

    The campaign raised awareness of the new product as well as increased brand favorability and purchase intent as demonstrated by strong engagement rates.

Collab Launch: Crocs x Salehe Bembury

  • Crocs and Salehe Bembury partnered to create one of the most anticipated collaborations of the year - allowing for a designer to disrupt the classic silhouette with a brand new mold.

    Highsnobiety was tapped to generate heat and awareness with both Cultural Pioneers, the masses, as well as with Salehe’s friends and family.

    To drive initial hype and conversation we created a custom IG filter allowing for users to explore the new mold and features showcasing the two different color ways.

    In order to further drive energy around the collaboration and showcase the product, the AR experience transported viewers into an immersive world, where they were able to virtually try on the new mold and express themselves in this new universe by sharing it via their socials.

    To amplify and sell the new silhouette user were lead to the collaboration landing page on crocs.com to buy the product.

    Custom OOH experiences, including a living mural in LA, painted footprints on the ground, and wheat posters were present in Hong Kong, LA and NY with QR codes leading to the AR experience.

    Rounding out the program, HS developed a seeding program, creating a hand made custom planter out of 100% recyclable plastic, delivered to Salehe and Crocs’ friends and family in a high end custom box along with the new Crocs.

Global Campaign: Crocs 20th Anniversary

  • It is Crocs’ 20th anniversary and they want the world to know their story, highlighting their very varied consumer, as after all….everyone loves Crocs and we are here to tell their stories.

    Crocs In The Wild'' is a content piece that spotlights Crocs history through the eyes and experience of 3 distinct Croc wearer’s and how their love of Crocs evolved over time.

    The format of the content is a parody of a traditional PBS/David Attenborough-Style nature show, where we used narrative VO and “observational” dialogue to recount brand history through their direct  lens.

    Assets were distributed in a custom interactive content hub on Highsnobiety as well as on Crocs O&O Channels across all global regions.

New Product Launch: Crocs Echo

  • Crocs was to unveil a premium footwear collection called Echo and needed a fresh approach to marketing.

    Echo marked a new direction 
for Crocs in-line product. It’s a new clog, with a new mold, and a bold design language that 
connect the brand’s signature comfort with contemporary style.

    To show just how loud Crocs’ latest shoes can be, Highsnobiety tapped NYC-based DJ Ant Blue Jr. to help give the clogs the proper treatment they deserve.

    In an unassuming record shop, we document a seemingly slow shift into an all-out rave. Set to an upbeat, synth-laced track, everyone in the record shop can’t help but unleash their true, unmuted personalities, reflecting the uncontainable spirit of the unique clog.

    Captured and distributed on Highsnobiety & Crocs O&O Channels.

New Product Launch: Crocs Mellow

  • With this new product launch, Crocs wanted to drive freshness & innovation in the recovery space cementing their place as the ultimate comfort shoe.

    We lead into our Mellow creative platform with cohesive campaign storytelling visualized through our lifestyle photography lookbook, paired with influencer seeding, getting the product in the hands of our tastemakers, globally.

    The visual queues from our lookbook and our seeding/AR social moment collectively launched our AR experience globally, cementing our widely accessible world of comfort through the lens of Mellow.

Campaign: Holiday Sales Driving

  • Holiday season is here and Crocs needs to ensure that their Q4 campaign meaningful drives holiday sales. The task at hand was create global content to be utilized across Crocs.com and retailers to engage the consumer, generate holiday cheer and ultimately drive sales.

    Highsnobiety created a custom content campaign where we invited 10x talent pairs to curate Crocs and Jibbitz that is representative of their friendship and gift to one another.

    This was brought to life through an editorial piece, which allowed users to dive deeper into the talent’s creative expression and identity.

    Additionally, Highsnobiety staff members gifted each other a pair of Crocs and Jibbitz, which was promoted on our site and social channels.

    Lastly, 3x Shopping Articles were created to highlight and showcase the different types of Crocs available during the holiday season.

    Assets were provided to Crocs for their own channels as well as third party retailers.

Global Insights: China, Japan, UK, France, USA

  • Crocs was understanding what the global cool kids are participating in today, across 5 of their key markets.

    We believe that making an impact in culture is all about bringing the right point-of-view. The Highsnobiety Strategy and Insights departments are where that point-of-view begins.

    Merging first-party data, audience research, expert perspective, and industry experience, we provided research and strategy reports and actionable outputs for Crocs to deploy in their future global product and marketing strategies.

Collaboration Project: Crocs x Hor

  • Crocs wanted to win with German youth, and what better place to activate than in Highsnobiety’s hometown, Berlin.

    Highsnobiety celebrates it’s home city every year with a full week of celebration called “Berlin, Berlin.”

    As a product center piece for the event, we flexed the best of our collaborative efforts in a limited-edition capsule collection with Crocs and HÖR, Berlin’s live-stream electronic music collective.

    Heavily inspired by staying in the moment, the custom clog featured a pattern lifted directly from the sounds of a HÖR exclusive setlist by artist Jing Lekker with a custom content story distributed to a global audience.

    Product completely sold out within hours of launch.

Strategic Project: What is the Future of Collabs?

  • Noticing the sheer volume of collaborations in the market, the Crocs team asked Highsnobiety to provide perspective on the state of collabs as well as a POV on the future of the tactic.

    Highsnobiety's unique place in the market — speaking to tastemakers while setting tastes both in culture and in companies — grants us a unique perspective on the future of trends.

    As both a publication serving Cultural Pioneers and a collaboration matchmaker for partners such as Adidas, Puma and Moncler, we were excited to bring insights from the street into the Crocs boardroom to inform their future collaboration strategy.

Cultural Focus Groups

  • Crocs wanted to understand the Cultural Pioneer’s relationship with the Crocs brand and how influential audiences approach style today.

    Highsnobiety created dedicated focus groups for in-depth qualitative interview sessions which were compiled into a Crocs Crew Touchpoint report and presented to Crocs Product and Marketing Teams.

Strategic Project: How to Enter the Metaverse

  • Responding to a Crocs team ask for knowledge on the emergent Metaverse, Highsnobiety’s Strategy and Insights teams collaborated to produce a consumer-focused Metaverse Strategy for Crocs.

    Highsnobiety turned around an audience-led POV on the Metaverse that both provided a Cultural Pioneer’s perspective on the space and netted to an actionable Metaverse strategy for Crocs.

City Based Cultural Immersion Tours

  • Culture moves faster than marketing and Highsnobiety immersion days bring marketers out in the field, on the ground, with culture experts touring the hot spots across global cities.

    Highsnobiety organized two city tours with expert panels, one in Berlin and the other in New York City, to provide the company's executive leaders with an on-the-ground perspective of the latest happenings in youth culture.