I've always been a huge fan of Lacoste and I've talked about it several times on Art is Alive. The renaissance of the brand is one of the most interesting case studies in the history of marketing. This new birth mainly comes from the innovative push they did in their ad campaigns (on the beach, some guy once said to his friend about me: "this guy looks like the guy in the Lacoste ad" which I thought was really flattering).
But let's go back to history. René Lacoste founded La Chemise Lacoste in 1933 with André Gillier, the owner and President of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm at the time. They began to produce the revolutionary tennis shirt Lacoste had designed and worn on the tennis courts with the crocodile logo embroidered on the chest. Although the company claims this as the first example of a brand name appearing on the outside of an article of clothing, the "Jantzen girl" logo appeared on the outside of Jantzen Knitting Mills' swimsuits as early as 1921. In addition to tennis shirts, Lacoste produced shirts for golf and sailing. In 1951, the company began to expand as it branched from "tennis white" and introduced color shirts. And the rest is history...
The new website of the brand is amazing! It allows the user, through an interactive adventure video, to create his/her very own story. The story follows a man who travels across the world in search of his girlfriend. The user and his/her clicks are in sole charge of their fate – depending on what fit the user chooses he should wear, his travels take twists and turns. Throughout the adventure, the brand presents the different L.12.12 polo shirt cuts for Men. Italian, Rugby, Fitted, Retro, Original… Each cut has a world of its own... And for each click a different path. A very creative, innovative video which focuses on the interactivity of internet users... I personnally really like the ultraslim cut which I think is really classy. Wear it with a slim white pants and you'll look fab. One of the videos the brand made which, from a stylistic point of view is fantastic is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrCp9CQ25N8&feature=player_embedded
On top of that, the Romeo&Juliet scene takes place in London which reminds me of the play I had scene at the Shakespeare's theatre Globe!! Have a look at it!
Visit the Lacoste website too and check the below video to get a better idea!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c15i4Hbmu8
More info on:
http://www.lacoste.com/l1212
http://www.facebook.com/lacoste
