700K followers in 40 days (8 videos, $0 ad spend)

Anthony Po grew a new account for Crocs from 0 to 700,000 followers in 1 month.

Without spending a single penny on ads.

With only 8 videos.

Anonymously.

yeah, you read that right…

Now, you might not know the name Anthony Po.

But I feel like you'll definitely remember the Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition that went viral a while back,

Six months before the campaign, Anthony hung up hundreds of flyers around nyc for the lookalike contest.

Winner gets $50.

10,000 people showed up 😅 and the police shut it down before it even started.

I’m pretty sure 4 people got arrested.

Anthony got a $500 fine.

And Timothée himself even showed up unannounced.

Click here to watch Anthony himself break the contest down →

But all in all, it made international news and went mega viral.

After he revealed himself to be the mastermind behind it - brands started reaching out like crazy.

Crocs was one of them.

But plot twist: they gave him full creative freedom.

"do anything as long as it's cool."

Most brands would never.

Most brands want scripts, approval processes, brand guidelines, stakeholders weighing in.

Crocs just said "we trust you."

So Anthony went absolutely nuts with it.

Spent 3 months planning.

Created a character called "kid with crocs."

3d scanned statue feet around nyc.

3d modelled custom crocs for each statue.

3d printed them.

Painted them by hand.

Then physically went to each statue and put the crocs on their feet.

Alice in wonderland statue? tiny crocs.

The balto statue? tiny crocs.

Worked his way up to the statue of liberty.

Each statue got its own cinematic video.

Anthony wrote scripts, animated the character himself, created original soundtracks and got his friend Danny to voice the character because his voice would've given him away.

He released one video every 5 days like a Netflix series.

People even started camping out at statues trying to guess the next location.

Emoji riddle clues on IG stories.

Guerrilla flyers around the city.

This was truly a labour of love (and people could tell).

The first video hit 10,000 views and Anthony was jumping up and down his house like he'd won the lottery.

By video 3, journalists were calling for interviews.

By the end, people were recognising "kid with crocs" on the street.

The results:

700k followers in 40 days.

With 8 videos and zero ad spend.

But more importantly - he built a fanbase.

People were making fanart of the character and even creating their own content around it.

Anthony’s formula is simpler than you’d expect:

You don't need a following to get people to care.

You just need to give a damn about what you're making.

Stop chasing trends.

Start creating worlds people want to live in.

The story wasn't really about crocs.

It was about this mysterious character on a mission to put tiny shoes on every famous statue in nyc.

People weren't following for the product.

They were following for the adventure.

Anthony calls it "meta narrative" - finding the bigger story your audience actually wants to watch.

And this is where most content goes wrong:

We're all trying to hack the algorithm instead of earning attention.

Looking for shortcuts instead of putting in the work.

Copying what worked for someone else instead of creating something only we could make.

Anthony spent 80 hours a week on this project while still making content for his main account.

Pulling all-nighters scripting and editing.

His friend Chris was staying up gluing together a 5-foot croc.

They were obsessed.

And that obsession was infectious.

Of course, Anthony could've taken the easy route.

Done a typical sponsored post, made some quick cash, called it a day.

But he knew this was his chance to do something legendary with his dream brand.

(he tweeted that he wanted to work with them 5 years before!)

So he went all in.

Crocs let him cook, and he cooked.

While other brands are micromanaging every detail of creator partnerships, crocs gave Anthony the one thing most creators never get:

Trust.

And that trust created something neither of them could've planned.

How many opportunities are brands missing because they’re too scared to trust creatives?

How much potential are they wasting by trying to control every variable instead of letting passion do its thing?

Anthony literally proved you can start from zero and build something massive if you're willing to put everything into it.

No shortcuts.

Just pure effort and love for what you're making.

Makes you wonder what you could build if you stopped looking for the easy way and started looking for the meaningful way.

Anthony's got a full video breaking down the entire campaign if you want to see how wild this project actually was 👇

Click here to watch it on YouTube →

Anyway, back to slowly dissolving in this UK heat lol.

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

P.S. If this has you thinking differently about your own content strategy, our WhatsApp group of 320+ business owners is full of people trying stuff like this. Daily wins, honest feedback, zero tolerance for "let's just copy what worked for someone else."

Join here if you want to be around people who actually experiment →

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