Objective: Own the back-to-school season with Gen Z and young millennial shoppers by working with a social-first comedic talent.
Challenge: Back-to-school is one of retail's loudest moments, and every brand seems to say the same thing at the same time. When everyone else is focused on selling, we focus on connecting, not as a campaign strategy, but as a core belief. So when the season arrived, we asked ourselves, how do we make our consumer stop scrolling for enough time to deliver our message?
The answer was comedy and the right voice to deliver it.
We partnered with Druski, one of the most influential and recognizable voices in digital comedy today. His storytelling and viral, quotable moments don't just entertain, they spark conversation. But Druski didn't just show up. He brought his entire camp with him. His crew of creators joined the collaboration, expanding reach organically and adding layers of authentic voice that no paid media strategy could manufacture. That's not a partnership. That's a cultural co-sign.
Inspired by how this generation scrolls, shares, and builds community, we created content designed to entertain first. This wasn't about pushing product or chasing trends. It was about integrating into the feed with purpose and using humor as a genuine connector.
SNIPES product integration was seamless, woven naturally into everyday moments rather than placed on a pedestal. The result was humor deployed with strategy, culture met with intention, and a brand showing up the way people actually want, earned, not interrupted.
Our goal was to authentically connect with our consumers, so we challenged ourselves to think beyond a retailer. We knew Gen Z skips, scrolls, and keeps it moving. We had to build something they’d stop for. We had to become content creators ourselves.
First, we identified and developed a relationship with the right talent: Druski wasn't hired as a transactional spokesperson; instead, we asked him to come in as a creative collaborator, leveraging what he’s built his entire career on - comedy and content. Druski helped shape the tone, timing, and humor so our campaign felt authentic to the audience he'd spent years earning trust with.
Next, we had to find the most believable set for the campaign shoot so it would feel real. So, we worked with Druski to organize the shoot at his old high school in Atlanta, casting real students alongside actors. Throughout the shoot, Druski played three original characters, a strict principal, a laid-back gym teacher, and a detention monitor. Two hero films, "Day One" and "Final Bell," showcased hallway fit checks, gym class moments, and parent-teacher run-ins.
As part of the marketing rollout, we activated in Atlanta, Brooklyn, Miami, and Philadelphia with back-to-school giveaways. In Atlanta, Druski made a surprise appearance at his former high school. The activation was built to look like Druski’s iconic “Coulda Been Records” set and students spent the afternoon being treated to backpack giveaways, interactive surprise prizes, and local food vendors. We were thrilled to give over 1,200 backpacks filled with notebooks, pens, pencils, and study materials to students.
What made this partnership truly unique was that Druski brought his entire camp with him - his crew of creators joined the collaboration, they were included in the campaign and amplified it across socials, adding authentic voices that a paid media strategy couldn’t replicate.
One of the biggest challenges was keeping the brand visible without making it feel like an ad. Too much product and it feels forced. Too little and don’t get your brand message across. The solution was to weave products, from footwear to tees and more, into the plot - in one scene Druski demands to know where a student got his ‘fit (obviously, SNIPES).
Style is in Session is an example of when all the elements work together, from finding the right consumer passion point (comedy/humor), to identifying a smart partner (the King of Internet Comedy, Druski), building a strong creative brief, giving back to the very consumers you’re targeting and subtly weaving in product messages.
The campaign proved that consumers are looking for content that feels authentic, human and fun. We broke through the loudest retail season of the year without shouting, and built genuine brand resonance without forcing it.
Earned media coverage exceeded initial benchmarks by 250%, delivering 3.5 billion impressions across culturally-relevant outlets that our consumer is reading/watching: The Shade Room (28M Instagram followers), Baller Alert, Black Enterprise, Essence, and Rolling Out aren't just publications, they're where young, diverse, culture-forward audiences spend their time and figure out how they want to show up in the world. We targeted those spaces specifically because it's more important to reach the right people versus reaching everyone.
Druski shared the content with his over 22 million social media followers, and the content reached 200,000+ accounts and generated 300,000+ video views on our owned social channels, strong returns from an audience that actively avoids traditional retail content.
Our Style in Session campaign proved that when you build with creators the culture already loves, you don't have to chase attention, it comes to you.
The results were so strong that we continued the approach into the holiday season: Our holiday campaign, "Wrapped in Heat," featured comedy rockstar Marlon Wayans and followed the same formula: comedy front and center, product never forced.
