March 2022, digital Crocodile is reportedly missing by Lacoste and Minecraft answer back, hinting they might have a clue where he has been… Gone somewhere in the game, on a map called ‘Croco Island’.

A team of Minecraft players is recruited: Smajor, Shubble, AtomicMary, Brawks and missioned to track the footsteps of the Crocodile on Croco Island and to bring him back to the Lacoste HQ. On Saturday night at a gaming event place, broadcasted live on twitch and youtube channels, our four ambassadors played Minecraft mini-games as enigmatic trials: parkours, build challenges, egg hunt… Minecraft players, fashion influencers and Lacoste vip customers were invited to gather at the party and to try the map after the gaming challenge was over. The event was hosted by E-spot, Paris presented by Laure Vallée and the party reported by Marie Palot.

In order to engage the Minecraft players community a bigger version of the map is offered on Minecraft marketplace to all the MC players right at the end of the event. Croco Island is a unique free DLC with hours of plays, the biggest map ever created by a partner brand and the first one ever launched with a dedicated server that allows players to gather the map with their friends, and this only to stay true to the storytelling of the campaign and because Lacoste is also about playing collective. The island is imagined as a gigantic amusement park with dozens of classic mini-games, a rollercoaster, eastern eggs, caverns, miles of roads, hidden paths, secret items to collect, and a brand new game-play never created before in Minecraft : Tennis. Good luck to you if you plan to create something new in a game of billions of creative players.

Mixing & matching both high-fashion and gaming universes is the main challenge. Building key visuals starts by defining: Who, where, in which situation and what treatment. Key visuals relied on the strength of the core of the campaign: the gaming ambassadors, shot in Croco Island, with classic Minecraft play attitudes (parkour, thimble jump, rollercoaster, exploring rooftops), in a typical Lacoste visual treatment (natural attitudes, shot by a 35mm, grain and faded colors).

The design of Croco Island is launched first, then an In-game photographer is hired to scoot for the best locations in-game. A precise balance is required between the 3D graphics, enhancing Minecraft textures and realistic shaders till the game still feels recognizable and true to players. Adding some of Minecraft’s visual interface and pov definitely helps giving the in-game look & feel.

Communities have been activated through digital channels focusing on the pieces of the collection and creating bridges between the different pieces (eyewear, footwear, leather bag, clothing) and the in-game experiences (parkour, exploration, etc). Four different key films are created for that purpose. Gaming codes such as players selector & NFT are used to display the full range of pieces of the collaboration and give insights for consumers how mix & match styles could be done.

To target the fashion community the seeding box is designed with a pretty simple idea. As for all the other campaign assets, it begins with play, the influencers had to experience IRL the Minecraft game play to get their rewards.

For both brands to show a positive example of the « It all begins with play » philosophy, the campaign is concluded by engaging the Lacoste fondation and Minecraft to help « Sport dans la ville » association’s project challenging the MC players creativity to design in-game a tennis court that will be build IRL at a youth complex in south of France.