Adweek: Independent TDA Advertising & Design said it has launched a $1.3 million print campaign for Crocs casual footwear tagged “Ugly can be beautiful.”
For the shoemaker’s first consumer advertising, Boulder, Colo.-based TDA crafted three full-page executions playfully “acknowledging Crocs strengths and weaknesses at the same time,” said shop creative director and copywriter Jonathan Schoenberg.
“They are funny-looking,” but people are hooked as soon as they slide their feet into the shoes, he said. “They’re super-light and super-soft . . . We just want people to try ’em on.”
The ads are running nationally in magazines including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, InStyle and Real Simple, as well as regional periodicals like San Diego, San Francisco and New York.
In addition, TDA has crafted city-specific wild-posting efforts in San Francisco and New York. Earlier this month, the agency relaunched the redesigned Crocs Web site.
Crocs—which Schoenberg called “extremely utilitarian”—are currently available in seven rainbow-spanning styles. The shoes are “great for sports, gardening, the beach,” he said, as well as for kids (“they can put them on themselves!”) and always-on-their-feet workers such as nurses, doctors, chefs and restaurant employees.
“I’m a bit of the socialist about these shoes,” Schoenberg noted.
Based in Niwot, Colo., Crocs’ production rate has grown to about one million pairs per month, according to TDA. The company is expected to go public within the next few weeks, and will be listed as CROX on the Nasdaq exchange.
