How Lacoste’s Crocodile Defied Distance and Cultural Differences
Last month the iconic French brand Lacoste celebrated the Crocodile’s 90th birthday in its unmatched style. 90 years of defying French sports fashion culminated in the retrospective TVC - but it wasn’t just any old retrospect. It was an exercise in connecting cultures, sub-movements within fashion, and seemingly unrelated characters with the help of French elegance, movement, savoir-faire and creativity.
It remains true that the brand found its stepping stone in sports players and their love for it, but beyond the golf and tennis fields, the Lacoste crocodile quickly took its course through the world and became embedded in fashion culture everywhere, acting as a powerful emblem of identity.
Lacoste’s Crocodile has been on a 90-year-long journey through an ever-changing world, supporting those who identify with it and connecting them in a web of cultural symmetry - it appeals to minimalists and maximalists alike, it moves those on the side of athleisure and those who are true athletes. Exuding Lacoste’s omnipresent style (one that you can always feel through the brand’s products but can never quite put your finger on), the campaign also addressed the impact that wearers had on it, not just the other way around.
This is exactly what the 90-year-anniversary campaign is about. Connecting Sao Paulo to Tokyo, Miami to Marseille, Paris to Harlem, Seoul to Paris, and with the help of creative agency BETC Paris, Lacoste illustrated the cultural knots that it has tied all around the globe. with authenticity and nuance, created with the help of cultural ‘curators’, the campaign is true to life.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to the team at BETC to find out more about the legacy of the Crocodile, and why the campaign was such a huge success.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign and what were the initial ideas surrounding it?
BETC> For its 90th anniversary, Lacoste wanted to honour and celebrate the Crocodile through the eyes of those that love and wear the brand, and own its iconic codes their way. Beyond individuals, the brand knew that it was a rallying sign for a lot of very diverse communities across the globe. So the brief was to find and capture these authentic Lacoste subcultures.
As a continuation of our last campaign ’Unexpected Encounters’ , we wanted to create a sense that these communities would connect around their shared love of the Crocodile, despite their different cultures, styles, lifestyles, passions and physical locations. This idea of connecting through a moment of eye contact across a split screen was born in print and translated into a film for each encounter.
LBB> What was the importance of diversity when it came to representing the people wearing Lacoste around the world and how did you make sure to encompass so many different lifestyles?
BETC> While Lacoste was born within French tennis by a passionate sportsman, the brand has grown to represent so much more than this over its 90 years. Now, a great diversity of people find their own meaning and style within the brand. It’s important that our advertising reflects the people that keep the brand evolving today.
LBB> How did you identify the subcultures related to the brand that you knew you wanted to represent in the films?
BETC> Lacoste undertook a significant amount of research across the globe to identify their communities, digging deep to ensure there was real authenticity behind every piece of communication. After identifying them, the brand and the agency worked together with local representatives from each culture to make sure the storytelling was relevant, authentic and nuanced.
LBB> Tell me more about the construction of the characters and their own stories that the campaign builds in such a short amount of time - how was that done?
BETC> It was extremely important for us that each community was captured in its own local environment, in a setting relevant to their daily lives, and in a style that reflected what they would really wear. Taking that as a starting point, we built short stories around community duos, captured in ephemeral moments of impossible connection, through a split-screen glancing game, that both brings them together and reveals their differences.
LBB> Tell me about the styling choices - how were the outfits put together and what kind of creative considerations were made?
BETC> Each encounter was imagined as a dialogue of contrasting styles. The stylists at Lacoste did remarkable work mixing current pieces with vintage ones in line with the authentic style of the people wearing them. Each look was studied in advance, in collaboration with community representatives, but also during fittings, with the individuals who would wear each look, to be sure that they would fit their personal style.
LBB> What was the location scouting like and what made these ones perfect?
BETC> We wanted meaningful locations for each community, places that were familiar to them and at the same time conducive to our split-screen play and visual encounter/eye contact game, for example, a RER platform at Les Ardoines faces a subway platform, a golf course in Miami faces a mini-golf in Marseille.
LBB> And did you film in multiple places at once? How was the production process when it came to moving between the locations?
BETC> We went from location to location with a small creative and production team. During each forward journey, we worked with our photographer, Ronan Gallagher, on a photo edit that provided us with a foundation to shoot the second side of the split screen with seamless continuity. This included creating a sense of eye contact and also ensuring seamless transitions between set designs. The same process was applied to the films.
LBB> The campaign is the 90th birthday of Lacoste - how did you manage to band together the new generations that are enjoying the brand with long-term friends and how did this reflect in the film?
BETC> We wanted to create a feeling of genuinely surprising encounters, with the level of delightful contrast between communities that truly exists between fans of the brand. And we knew we wanted a cool and light-hearted spirit. Naturally, the retirees from Miami found themselves facing young people from Marseille who were chilling at a mini-golf course. The ball, launched from Miami, went straight into the golf hole in Marseille, and that completed the picture.
LBB> What were the biggest challenges of the campaign and what were the most fun parts of it?
BETC> We faced several challenges during the execution of the campaign, from production to execution. We embarked on the journey with a very small team to meet each community, and we stayed a minimum amount of time in each place. It was like solving a puzzle from one destination to another. Shooting in Sao Paulo on the day of the Brazil quarter-final will remain a great memory. All the kids from the neighbourhood came to watch, with great curiosity, wearing their green and yellow. It was truly amazing to meet all of the communities, and explain the concept behind the campaign, which culture they would « encounter » in their ad, and how they would be representing their community through each story.
LBB> Tell me about the track that is used as the 'punchline' of the films and the importance of music in this campaign.
BETC> We wanted a sound to punctuate each impossible encounter made possible by the Crocodile. A fresh, cool, and slightly peculiar sound, like a real punchline with signature Lacoste spirit.
LBB> How does the colouring and overall aesthetic of the films reflect the brand's identity and what were the creative considerations made there?
BETC> We wanted something aesthetically pleasing, fashionable, but also very true to the emotions of each individual. The locations, styling, and colour scheme of the images were all developed with this in mind. Our choice to collaborate with Photographer Ronan Gallagher was key. He established a colourful, bright visual language for Lacoste in the last campaign, and we wanted to continue with the same vibrant spirit. Director, Yoni Lappin, brought his own pop culture approach to the table, while also capturing the authenticity of each community. Our social media content director, Chris Saulnier, brought fun social language to the fore, with dynamic movement to keep our audiences engaged and always asking for more.
