You don’t build a brand on fan loyalty by simply listening. If you’re Crocs, you earn that loyalty by leaning in to turn fan ideas into over-the-top realities. Crocs is a brand that listens to its fans and does what a lot of great brands don’t, it responds.
Case in point: Croctober. When fans began organically celebrating Crocs online on National Crocodile Day in 2017, the brand jumped in to join the fun, turning Oct. 23 into ‘Croc Day’ and rechristening October as ‘Croctober.’
In 2023, Crocs set out to support its fans in raising the Croctober bar to new heights, with social media activations leading the way. The multichannel campaign focused on fostering online conversation centered around fan passion and creativity.
The social media campaign focused on entertaining and increasing online conversation through influencer content, lo-fi reactionary memes and highly produced fashion-forward stills and videos. The campaign was centered around fan passion and creativity. Every touch point had a call-to-reaction that fans loved to engage with.
The month began with the social media reveal of one of the most widely requested Crocs designs in brand history – the Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot. For years, the buzz around a Crocs-inspired cowboy boot had been building, creating a genuine fan-fueled movement trending across social media with memes tagging the brand. Recognizing this passion, Crocs turned it into a reality. The coveted fan-inspired boots nearly sold out globally within 24 hours, and fans’ viral videos and photos continued for weeks. The reveal of the Classic Cowboy Boot alone drove an engagement rate of 9.5% and one UGC TikTok alone received 17 million views and 1.2 million likes in just 24 hours.
The brand also celebrated its fans as the stars they are with the Crocstellation – a constellation in the sky outlined as a Classic Clog made up of actual stars gifted to 100 Croc Stars. Fans across the globe were able to view the Crocstellation through an exclusive AR filter by visiting crocs.com and Crocs' platforms. It was even featured on the Nasdaq tower in Times Square.
In China, Crocs fans took to Douyin as part of the “Dongmen” community of clog lovers. Crocs worked with local rapper Uncle Gem to create an original song for the brand’s Dongmen Challenge, in which fans were invited to create content around self-expression with Crocs and Jibbitz charms. The challenge raked in over 417 million impressions, 200,000 UGC submissions and 33.6 million engagements.
Throughout Croctober 2023, the brand spotlighted Crocs-pirations from fans across the globe. Over the years, these Crocs Stars have created everything from cake Crocs to life-sized Crocs costumes. During Croctober, their work was highlighted across Crocs' platforms and through in-store activations. These Crocs Star videos, which consisted of influencers of all levels of following and genuine fans with virtually no following, generated upward of 17 million video views and over 33 million engagements.
All told, Croctober 2023 garnered more than 98 million impressions, 8 million engagements and an 8.4% engagement rate across Crocs’ social channels. Across influencer social channels, the campaign had more than 100.3 million impressions and an engagement rate of 14.3%, while the reveal of the Classic Cowboy Boot alone drove an engagement rate of 9.5%, and Croc Star videos generated upward of 500,000 video views per post. In China, there were more than 200,000 submissions to the Dongmen Challenge, resulting in more than 407 million impressions in just 10 days and more than 33.6 million engagements.
Media outlets also couldn’t get enough of Croctober, creating 6.3 billion global media impressions. Crocs.com saw 1.2 million site visits worldwide on Croc Day alone.
From highlighting fan creativity through UGC content to gifting stars to 100 Crocs fans across the globe to grabbing headlines and late-night punchlines from Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers about the Classic Cowboy Boots, the brand delivered the best Croctober yet. Crocs and its fans once again proved that the sky is no limit.
