A sleeping beauty that needed to be awakened.

At the origins of the French clothing brand, was a breakthrough invention: tennis champion René Lacoste, invented the very first polo shirt in 1933.

An iconic product, that’s been copied ever since, leading Lacoste to become an undifferentiated brand.

A brand that had difficulty existing, positioned between sports giants and sexy fashion brands.

We needed to bring back the fame to Lacoste, focusing on our iconic product, the polo shirt.

More than an advertising campaign, Lacoste needed a brand reprogramming.

To claim its uniqueness, we developed a new brand platform at the crossroads between its sports heritage and its French effortless elegance:

LIFE IS A BEAUTIFUL SPORT.

Because life in the city is the most demanding sport, and its performers – be they spectacular sportsmen or everyday people – can take up life challenges with panache.

To bring to life this new platform, we developed an integrated communication plan. We made the first brand TVC, “The Big Leap”, combining emotion and performance, in a spectacular cinematic format. We claimed our unique effortless elegance through spectacular outdoor visuals. And we focused on real life performances with the Urbanites, sport performers who make the city their playground. We also chose to push innovation on social networks with a partnership with Zach King on Vines and becoming the first fashion brand on Snapchat.

Thanks to this renewed brand communication, we reached record results in terms of business and image.

3 KPI were expected from the campaign (TV, press, digital):

KPI #1:

SALES IN FRENCH MARKET. Volume sales reached historic levels: +8,4% in 2014, +5,4% in 2015, on a decreasing French apparel market. Polo sales volume increased by 19% in 2015 vs. 2014. Lacoste is the only polo brand on a positive trend between 2014 and 2015: 35,5% share of value in 2015 vs. 11,6% for key competitor Ralph Lauren.

Lacoste France turnover generated by the Media Campaign increased by 9% vs 2014.

KPI#2:

GET THE CONSUMERS BACK: Traffic in store increased by 9% in 2015 vs 2014 and purchase rate on the e-store increased by 15% in the same period of time.

KPI#3:

BRAND IMAGE & CAPACITY TO GENERATE CONVERSATION.

With this campaign, Lacoste was back in the game.

It strongly reinforced the brand equity pillars with +66 % saliency and 25% in desirability. Lacoste won 4 points in spontaneous awareness.

With 24 million views, The Big Leap is among the top most viewed fashion films on YouTube. Conversations and great enthusiasm about the campaign led to great organic growth on Lacoste social networks: +14% on Facebook, +42% on Twitter and + 400% on Instagram.

And cool, trendy people like Pharrell Williams also started to wear Lacoste polo shirts.