Making teenagers fall in love again with an iconic shoe

Agency: AKQA, 2017

Chucks were losing their cool and Converse needed to rebuild the connection young people had with the iconic shoe in order to reassert themselves as a top choice in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z isn’t interested in being any one thing or person, and they express all the versions of themselves freely. Our campaign reminds the new generation of teens that classic Chucks are the perfect pair of shoes for whoever and whatever they want to be.

Shot and directed by Ryan McGinley, we built a campaign exclusively for teens leveraging idols they connect most with such as Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Hill, Cole Sprouse, Alton Mason, Rowan Blanchard, Selah Marley and Alisha Boe.

The campaign gained major attention, with over 4 million YouTube views on Converse’s channel within a week as well as major mainstream press coverage. It lived across OOH, YouTube masthead, Snapchat takeovers, in-store and mall installations, social, audio, and digital.