The “Anthropologie Rock” didn’t start as a planned campaign. It started with our community.
In September 2025, our social team noticed a post from creator Phoebe Adams, who pranked her boyfriend by pretending she had purchased an “Anthro Rock.” Soon after, customers and creators began sharing videos discovering "decorative rocks" sold in Anthropologie stores, pranking their loves one, treating the find with equal parts curiosity and humor. We saw an opportunity to play along, not interrupt the joke, and join in.
Our objective was to participate in the moment without breaking it. We focused on listening first and responding in a way that felt self-aware, human, and true to how our community already talks about Anthropologie.
We set out to:
Honor and amplify earned conversation, keeping creators and customers at the center.
Build brand affinity and cultural relevance, especially with Gen Z and millennial audiences, through restraint, humor, and trust.
Turn cultural curiosity into real-world engagement — from search and store visits to social followership — without turning the moment into a traditional campaign.
Have fun!
At a time when 96% of brand conversation happens off of owned channels, the Anthropologie Rock became a test of our community-first approach. It wasn’t about selling a rock. It was about showing that when a brand listens closely and responds thoughtfully, social conversation can drive real relevance and connection.
From the start, our approach to the Anthropologie Rock followed one guiding principle: let the internet lead. This wasn’t a moment to manufacture or over-brand. It was a moment to listen, move thoughtfully, and protect what made the conversation work.
As Phoebe Adams’ initial video gained traction on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts followed by a wave of creators and customers sharing their own “Anthro Rock” discoveries, our first decision was to pause. Instead of posting immediately, our social and community teams monitored sentiment, tracked momentum, and identified where the conversation was unfolding organically. The humor was affectionat and we knew that moving too quickly could break the joke.
Then, our execution unfolded in three intentional phases:
Community Listening & Engagement: Our social community team engaged directly in the comments across hundreds of community posts, responding with humor and restraint. These interactions became part of the story themselves, extending reach and reinforcing that Anthropologie was present and paying attention without dominating the moment.
Creator-Led Participation: We prioritized earned voices over owned channels. Select creators, including Phoebe, were surprised & delighted with hand-wrapped “official” Anthropologie Rocks prepared by our internal art team! Creators chose how and if they shared these gifts, preserving authenticity and trust while signaling that the brand was in on the joke.
Light-Touch Brand Confirmation: Only after creator momentum was established did Anthropologie post from its own channels. First, we invited Phoebe to her local NJ store to "show" her boyfriend our in-store Rock display...live, in person! Then, we created just a few owned videos: an in-store collection video, a TikTok giveaway, and as the holiday season continued a tongue-in-cheek “Rock Advent Calendar.”
The primary challenge was knowing what not to do. Resisting pressure to over-commercialize or over-explain required alignment across social, community, retail, and merchandising teams. By trusting our community and letting humor lead.
What made this work unique wasn’t speed alone. It was also restraint. By treating creators and customers as collaborators rather than distribution channels, we were able to turn a spontaneous internet joke into a culturally resonant brand moment driven by our community.
The Anthropologie Rock exceeded our expectations by showing how earned, community-led conversation can drive both cultural relevance and real community action!
By prioritizing creators and community over traditional brand amplification, the moment generated 550M impressions across owned, earned, and press, alongside 15K earned mentions across social and media.
Phoebe Adams’ initial videos sparked the movement, delivering 37.8M video views and 3.3M engagements across platforms! Our follow-up content with her became our highest-performing TikTok content ever, driving 16M+ views, with additional in-store videos contributing 11.5M more views.
The conversation quickly scaled beyond individual creators. Community members, brands, sports teams (from the NHL to the NFL!), and celebrities (YES, OPRAH!!) fueled an additional 200M impressions, resulting in 14K+ user-generated videos and sustained cultural momentum. Our social community team amplified the moment by engaging directly in comments across hundreds of posts, with community-led interactions alone generating 66M impressions.
