How Croctober became a celebration of people who like Crocs
Winning Social Media Gold in The Drum Awards for Marketing Americas is Crocs. Here is the award-winning case study.
Example of winning work
Objectives
Coined by Crocs fans, Croctober (aka October) is a month-long celebration of Crocs loyal and creative fans. What started as a single day, Croc Day (October 23rd) has turned into a month-long takeover in celebration of Croc Nation. Crocs joined in over recent years, rewarding fans with unbeatable offers and new limited-time product drops that fans have come to expect.
As October gets more crowded and holiday deals are coming in hot earlier every year, we needed to do something bigger, bolder, and unexpected to cut through the noise to celebrate fans in a way that only Crocs can. Croctober 2023 was our chance to put our die-hard fans on the Mega Crush pedestal they deserve for an entire month.
Strategy
We built our strategy on a fan-first insight—people who love Crocs REALLY love Crocs and use them as a canvas for the ultimate form of creative self-expression. These fans deserved a strategy that matched their unparalleled creative energy, so we made them the main characters and voices of Croctober. From making them the heroes of our content and literally crowning our first group of Croc Stars to creating a tribute to them in the literal night sky with a constellation of stars, we were determined to center our fans in everything we do, including our design process.
To kick off our celebration of fans, we set out to give them a product that they wanted. Social listening told us fans wanted a cowboy boot done Crocs style. So, Crocs got to work to make their fan-fiction fashion dreams come true. Thus, the first-ever Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot was created. An idea born directly out of fan creativity to celebrate fan creativity.
We knew we had to go all in on making the boot and our fans the stars of the month. So, we crowned 95 Croc Stars to be recognized as the most creative and boldest fans across the globe. Crocs sent them the boot before anyone else could get their feet in it and included a special, exclusive metal Jibbitz charm to label them an official Croc Star. Immediately, our Croc Stars posted organic unboxing content, giving others a sneak peek of the boot. Crocs kept a pulse on the Croctober conversation and authentically jumped in Croc Stars’ comments to keep the momentum going.
The social sphere went crazy for it. Other sought-after influencers begged for the boot. When they got their hands on a pair, they hopped in the Croctober chat, posting their own Cowboy Boot content with the rest of Croc Nation. The Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot turned into a status symbol—and fans couldn’t wait to get their hands on it. We used this opportunity to direct everyone to a Croctober landing page that featured a boot release countdown and UGC video content celebrating the epic creativity of our fans. On Croc Day, October 23, Crocs dropped the Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot for global purchase, and it sold out in as little as an hour across the globe.
We kept the party going with one more surprise: our first collab with the universe. We purchased actual stars in the name of each Croc Star through Star Registry, then revealed that these stars aligned to form the official Crocstellation—a clog-shaped star cluster that will commemorate our fans for millions of years. By directing fans to a mobile webpage with an AR filter, we empowered them to experience it for themselves. As an added bonus, they could be recognized as one of our remaining 5 Croc Stars by sharing a screenshot of their experience on social—putting a final bow on Croctober 2023.
Results
Croctober 2023 proved that Crocs remains all about our fans. We stanned our fans as boldly and unapologetically in the same spirit that they stan their Crocs. Our Croc Stars—and the Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot they inspired—owned the month, taking over feeds, timelines, and news stories. The Boot tease dropped and went viral, trending #1 on Google. Then by the time the Boot was announced, it was picked up by all major media outlets, including Jimmy Fallon, CNN, Forbes, The New York Times, People and The Washington Post, to name a few.
And we drove engagement and conversation across the world for an entire month. We proved that a networked, uniquely ownable celebration based in fan insights can keep fans’ attention all month long while also driving tangible business results:
- 79MM Global impressions from Influencer Posts
- 98MM Global impressions across Crocs’ organic social channels, with a 9.5% engagement rate
- 6.9B Global PR Impressions
- 29% Positive Sentiment
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