NIWOT, CO: Crocs is getting instant gratification out of TikTok. Within one week of launching a profile, more than 100,000 people began following the foam clog shoe on the short-form video platform.
Crocs joined its own TikTok party on October 2 because the brand was already part of viral trends on the platform, such as the Shaving Cream Challenge, which involves filling a Croc with shaving cream and jamming your foot in. There was also the Crocs Shoe-Throwing Challenge, in which participants throw the shoe in the air to find it always lands flat on its sole.
"We knew there was something happening there," said Crocs SVP and CMO Terence Reilly.
An internal team of four manages Crocs’ social media. Leading the TikTok launch was Rudy Bachraty, manager of global social media, and Toria Roth, a global social media specialist for Crocs. The team enlisted eight influencers to spread the word that Crocs has a TikTok page.
To keep the momentum going, Crocs launched a competition with musician Post Malone, inspired by the song "I’m Gonna Be" from his new album with the lyrics, "Richard Mille my watch; thousand dollar Crocs."
"When one of the most popular artists in the world is singing about your brand, that is a wonderful moment for us to use with our fans during Croctober [the brand’s nickname for October]," said Reilly.
The #ThousandDollarCrocs challenge encourages fans to post content on TikTok showing what their $1,000 Crocs would look like "by customizing, enhancing or by just embodying the Come As You Are mentality and letting the world know I’m gonna be whatever I want," Crocs said in a post.
Since 2017, Crocs’ motto has been Come as You Are, celebrating the uniqueness of individuals and inspiring people to be comfortable in their own shoes.
"At the end of [the challenge], we are going to select a piece of winning content and give away $1,000 Crocs to that individual," said Reilly.
Within 24 hours of launching the challenge, Crocs saw an 18% increase in followers on TikTok, Reilly said. Crocs worked with 10 Influencers to announce its #ThousandDollarCrocs Challenge. They posted the videos to their accounts and then Crocs added the videos to its own profile.
Fewer than 36 hours after launching the challenge, the hashtag had been viewed 95 million times on TikTok and more than 45,000 videos had been created.
For a typical video-creation challenge on TikTok, the benchmark by day six is 100,000 pieces of content. However, Crocs had surpassed 50,000 pieces of content submitted for the challenge in the first 24 hours, said Reilly.
"TikTok is a great way for our consumer to express themselves and they are doing that in incredible numbers and [having] a lot of fun as well," he said.
The secret to Crocs’ success on TikTok, said Reilly, is its authenticity.
"Everything you’re seeing is widely different and it is unique to every piece of content and it all features our iconic footwear," he said. "Crocs shoes are iconic and different from anything else and so is the content we are seeing that reflects our brand as well."
