Submitted by CollectivelyAgency IPI Score 72/100

Building Brand Legacy: A Three-Year Journey

Creator Partnerships

Collectively ran 10 creator-led campaigns over three years for Converse, generating 26.5 million impressions and 5.8 million engagements across Instagram and TikTok.

5.8MEngagements
26.5MImpressions
9.34%Engagement rate
25.97%In-feed view rate

About the campaign

Heritage sneaker brands risk reading as legacy products to younger audiences unless the story is actively renewed, and Converse wanted sustained cultural relevance with Gen Z over years rather than through a single activation. Collectively structured the partnership as ten separate campaigns across three years, each with its own creative hook but united by the Chuck Taylor's core meaning as a canvas for personal expression, a brief that asks creators to make the shoe their own rather than simply endorse it.

Three named activations anchor the program: #ForeverChuck invited teens to share personal moments with the shoe; the Converse at Journeys back-to-school ambassador program, run with retail partner Journeys, had creators personalize sneakers with DIY materials; and an influencer gifting campaign supported the ERX Jewel Pack launch. All activity ran on Instagram and TikTok through 220 creators, a deliberately distributed roster reflecting the view that Gen Z trust lives across many peer-level voices rather than a few large accounts, with organic posts combined with paid placements.

Collectively reports the full program generated 26.5 million paid and organic impressions, 5.8 million engagements, a 9.34 percent engagement rate the agency describes as above typical fashion and lifestyle benchmarks, and a 25.97 percent in-feed view rate. All figures are agency self-reported.

Case in 60 seconds

Converse wanted sustained cultural relevance with Gen-Z over an extended period, rather than through a single activation, requiring a program that could refresh creatively across multiple campaigns without losing a consistent brand thread.

The Chuck Taylor All Star's brand story centers on personal expression — the shoe as a canvas for the wearer's identity — which makes creator-first, community-driven content a natural fit, since the product meaning is constructed by the people wearing it.

Collectively structured the partnership as 10 separate campaigns over three years, each with its own creative hook but united by a shared theme of self-expression and creativity, so momentum could be sustained without repeating the same execution.

Three named activations anchor the program: #ForeverChuck invited teens to share personal moments with the shoe; the Converse at Journeys back-to-school ambassador program had creators personalize sneakers with DIY materials; and an influencer gifting campaign supported the ERX Jewel Pack product launch. All activity ran on Instagram and TikTok across 220 creators.

Collectively reports 26.5 million paid and organic impressions, 5.8 million engagements, a 9.34% engagement rate, and a 25.97% in-feed view rate across the full three-year, 10-campaign program. All figures are self-reported and have not been independently verified.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Converse targeted Gen-Z and broader youth culture audiences, a demographic central to the brand's positioning around creativity and self-expression. Reaching this audience required cultural fluency across a sustained period, not a single moment.
Heritage sneaker brands risk being perceived as legacy products by younger audiences unless the brand story is actively renewed. Converse's positioning — the Chuck Taylor as a canvas for personal style — provides a way in, but that story needs to be told repeatedly by credible voices inside Gen-Z culture, not broadcast from outside it.
Footwear influencer marketing often defaults to one-off product launches or single-season campaigns. Maintaining creative momentum and cultural resonance over three years across multiple campaigns is structurally harder than a single burst, requiring each chapter to carry its own hook while holding the broader brand thread.
Converse positioned itself as an enabler of self-expression rather than a style authority. The Chuck Taylor's identity as a customizable canvas gave creators a genuine brief — make it yours — rather than asking them to simply endorse a product.
Spreading the program across 220 creators rather than concentrating spend on a small number of large accounts reflects a view that Gen-Z trust is distributed across many peer-level voices, and that consistent presence across a wide network sustains reach more reliably than dependence on any single influencer.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram creator posts (organic and paid)
  • TikTok creator posts (organic and paid)
  • Influencer gifting assets for ERX Jewel Pack launch
  • DIY personalization content for Converse at Journeys back-to-school campaign

Partners

  • Collectively (lead agency, self-reported — https://collectivelyinc.com/case-studies/converse)
  • Journeys (retail partner for back-to-school ambassador program — https://collectivelyinc.com/case-studies/converse)

Participation mechanic

  • #ForeverChuck hashtag campaign inviting teens to share personal moments with the shoe
  • Converse at Journeys back-to-school ambassador program with DIY sneaker personalization
  • Influencer gifting for the ERX Jewel Pack product launch

Creator role

  • Content creators producing organic and paid posts on Instagram and TikTok
  • Brand ambassadors for the Converse at Journeys back-to-school program
  • Gifted reviewers for the ERX Jewel Pack launch

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Total paid and organic impressions26.5 millionReachAgency reported
Total engagements5.8 millionEngagementAgency reported
Engagement rate9.34%EngagementAgency reported
In-feed view rate25.97%EngagementAgency reported

Why Collectively's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Structuring a partnership as a sequence of distinct campaigns, each with its own creative hook, allows a program to refresh without abandoning a consistent brand theme. Collectively's 10-campaign structure maintained a thread of self-expression across three years while keeping individual activations fresh.

  2. 2

    Spreading activity across 220 creators rather than concentrating investment in a small number of large accounts reduces dependence on any single voice and sustains reach into distributed Gen-Z communities over a long program.

  3. 3

    Grounding each activation in the brand's existing product story — the Chuck Taylor as a canvas for personal style — gave creators a genuine brief rather than a purely promotional one, which is consistent with higher organic engagement on creator content.

  4. 4

    Combining organic creator posts with paid placements allows reach to be extended beyond the creator's own audience while preserving the authentic content quality that drives engagement. The reported 9.34% engagement rate is described as above category benchmarks, though no independent benchmark is cited.

  5. 5

    Linking individual campaigns to specific retail moments (the Converse at Journeys back-to-school program) and product launches (the ERX Jewel Pack gifting campaign) ties creator activity to commercial triggers, connecting brand and sales objectives within the same execution.

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