On Tuesday, a story on People.com included a quote from Nina Garcia on her opinion of Crocs™ shoes. You may know Nina Garcia from Project Runway, and she’s also the fashion director for Marie Claire. You can imagine our horror when we read the article and her advice was for adults to never wear Crocs. What do you do when a celebrity fashion advisor bans adults from wearing your client’s product? Together with our awesome client, Crocs, we came up with a five-pronged approach to address the situation.

The result? This follow up story today on People.com, “Ryan Reynolds Lifts Nina Garcia’s Crocs Ban”, and many happy Crocs fans (and maybe even some first-time buyers) with new Crocs shoes.

Here’s what we did:

1. Sent Nina Garcia some Crocs ASAP. So she can see that they aren’t just rubber shoes with holes anymore.
2. Addressed via social media. Since this was a timely topic, and the comment thread on the article had reached 100 posts overnight, we wanted to connect with these readers very quickly. With the help of Crocs’ social media team, we posted responses on the People.com article, Crocs’ Facebook page (tagging People.com), and Twitter.
3. Coupon code for fans. After all the support from Crocs fans defending their Crocs shoes, we decided to reward their loyalty with a 24-hour coupon code for 20% off purchases made on Crocs.com. We included information about the code in our messages on all social media channels.
4. Crocs blog post. Since the only information out there was the People.com article, we needed to post our side of the story.
5. Pitched the People.com author. The best thing we could have hoped for was a follow up post on People.com about how many people do like Crocs. We sent a note to the author of the story, and let her know that Crocs now offers more than 250 styles – including heels – and that many celebrities are fans of Crocs. We included recent photos of celebrities spotted in the shoes. We also let her know about what Crocs was doing as a response to her story (see 1-3 above) and offered up the idea of a follow up story.



Linhart PR lands Crocs in People Magazine

Lessons learned: quick thinking, a strategic approach, supportive fans, and a well-thought-out response can (and does!) get the end result you want. Also, keeping your eyes on the news and your finger on the pulse of your clients’ industries is of utmost importance and can open the door for new opportunities.