The crocodile is one of the most famous logos in the world: we suggested Lacoste transform it into a megaphone, drawing public attention to endangered wild animals.

How? In the most significant way possible for Lacoste: changing their legacy product, the polo, and replacing the iconic embroidered crocodile with endangered species.

Lacoste initiated a three-year partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the experts of animal conservation.

This collaboration led to the creation of 10 extremely limited-edition polo shirts, with the crocodile leaving its historic spot to 10 threatened species. For each species, the number of polo shirts produced corresponded to the number of animals known to remain in the wild: ranging from 30 for the Vaquita to 450 for the Anegada Rock Iguana. In total, 1,775 polo shirts were created. Each polo purchased helped preserve these species worldwide by supporting IUCN’s Save our Species programme.

We wanted the money to go to the cause and not into production or media. Our strategy for the campaign launch was to use the brand’s own strengths to ensure impact:

- a loved logo on social media: we developed video digital assets showing the crocodile leaving its spot to threatened species

- a key event, the Fashion Show at the Paris Fashion Week: the last 10 looks were inspired by the 10 species.

We spent less than 57 000€ on production of assets and media investment. The impact of the results exceeded our expectations.

Objective 1: Raise IUCN awareness and visibility

o Donations multiplied by 4 during the campaign.

o Traffic on saveourspecies.org increased 200% and newsletter subscriptions increased 300%.

o An equivalent of 9,9 million earned media. A significant spike in all key metrics on IUCN tweets: 904,000 impressions 18,000 engagements, retweeted by over 2,100 accounts.

Objective 2: Develop Lacoste’s reputation as a committed and responsible brand

o All polos were sold out in 24h, confirming positive support for the project.

o The media impact around the world generated 9,9 million euros earned media for only 2 700€ invested in media. (600k shares, 1,2 billion impressions, 111 million reach which is 7 times more than the fashion show on the same day).

A campaign to engage the Lacoste community and recruit new customers:

o 76% new clients created an account on Lacoste.com

o Lacoste fan base increased: Instagram: + 26% fans vs 2017. Facebook: 10 times more fans earned than 2017.

Most importantly, this campaign generated unprecedented success for IUCN:

o The collaboration allowed IUCN to initiate a conservation programme for the Burmese roofed turtle.

o IUCN uses the campaign as their key case study to show companies how they can engage in species conservation and even do it in a “cool and popular way”.

o Inquiries from brands increased 100% including new sectors: sports/luxury tourism and supermarket retailers.

o They currently have 2 new potential donors/partners (1 private sector and 1 philanthropic) who came to them after seeing the campaign.