How Le Creuset blends TikTok trends and memes with its elevated brand image

Pricey cookware may not be the first thing most consumers look for on TikTok. But since launching Le Creuset’s TikTok account roughly two years ago, Rachel Coffey, the brand’s manager of social media marketing, has seen rapid growth of a new, younger Le Creuset enclave on the platform. “TikTok has turned into our fastest-growing platform, actually,” Coffey, who has overseen Le Creuset’s social media strategy and influencer partnerships for the past five years, told Ad Age. “And we have definitely seen a bit of a younger and newer audience there, which has been really great for us in terms of reaching that sort of next generation of fans.” Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here The brand currently boasts more than 233,000 followers on TikTok and another 1.1 million on Instagram—the two platforms Coffey cites as Le Creuset’s top priorities. On both, Coffey and her team have sought to carefully balance the growth of short-form, lo-fi videos over the past few years with Le Creuset’s 98-year-old reputation as an elegant, luxury cookware brand. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. @lecreuset Yes, the Iris Collection is strikingly gorgeous AND functional ✨ #lecreuset #lecreusettiktok #kitchenstyle #serveware #iriscollection #kitchenaesthetic #foodtok ♬ original sound - Nile How do you and your team approach creating social content? Is it planned out far ahead of time or typically more reactionary? For the most part, we do have content and campaigns planned out fairly far in advance for things like big tentpole campaigns, holidays or new product or collection launches throughout the year. But we always leave room for some flexibility and more reactionary content, like jumping on a cultural moment or working with an influencer. [Also read: How TikTok's ad measurement is changing] Your posts highlighting new collections are some of your most popular ones, right? What’s your strategy behind those? Earlier this year, we started doing more teaser campaigns leading up to those larger product launches, which has been great in terms of drumming up more interest around them—especially among our super fans out there. We typically launch a couple of colors in the spring and a few more in the fall, and we kind of build our content calendar around those three or four big color or collection launches each year. Like, we have the pumpkin line for fall and our heart collection around Valentine’s Day. For our teasers, we’ve developed kind of a creative signature around them where they all have a similar feel, and we’ve seen some really great engagement—a lot of speculation from our community around what a new color or something will be. It's been great to see people get excited about them before they even really know what they’re getting excited about. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Le Creuset (@lecreuset) Which social platforms are you currently focusing on? We’re not super active on Twitter, or X, anymore. Instagram is definitely our largest and top priority, and I would say Instagram and TikTok are kind of our big two right now. We still have a presence across all the other platforms—Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn and a little bit of X—but as far as custom content and priorities, it's definitely Instagram and TikTok. And when it comes to content we’re posting on each, it’s kind of a case-by-case basis. There are definitely some things that get shared to TikTok that are maybe a little bit more silly, or like a trend that hasn't really made it over to Instagram that it will stay on TikTok only. And vice versa—if something’s a little bit too polished for TikTok, it might be a great fit for Instagram and maybe Facebook but it doesn’t make it over to TikTok. Why is the brand not as active on X anymore? Our social strategy prioritizes quality over quantity, focusing on the channels that drive the most awareness and engagement for us. Our color assortment is a core part of our brand identity, so platforms that lean into visual content tend to be the best fit for us. Those priorities, combined with shifts in audience behavior, have led us to focus mainly on Instagram and TikTok rather than text-based social platforms. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs When it comes to trends or pop culture moments, how do you decide where to engage and which ones to pass on? Honestly, our approach to that is kind of similar to our approach to product and color development. Our product team is very intentional about seeking out and creating colors that are current and modern, but will stand the test of time and be part of different trends for years to come. So, with social, we always want to be current and relevant, but we don't ever want to become too hyper-trendy or too dependent on memes. If we’re going to participate in a trend, we think about it really strategically and we want to make sure that we actually have something to add to the conversation. A good example of that I think is a fun series we have on Instagram and TikTok called “Make It Mini,” which are videos that take trending TikTok recipes and reimagine them for our mini cocottes, which are a super popular product. It’s a good way to activate on those trends without just kind of doing what everyone else is doing. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Le Creuset (@lecreuset) And sometimes we’ll work with our creative team to make a meme, like when those “Little Miss” and “red flag” memes were everywhere. But we work with the team to make sure those graphics still fit in with our brand fonts, our brand voice and the rest of our content. Because we are a bit more of an elevated brand, we want to always maintain that and protect our brand image. [Look back: New memes like ‘Little Miss’ challenge brands on social] View this post on Instagram A post shared by Le Creuset (@lecreuset) How does your team find creators and influencers to work with? What role do they play in your social strategy? Influencers play a huge role for us, for sure. Our team works with a pretty large, diverse group. Some might be year-long partnerships and others might be one-offs around those kinds of tentpole moments, color launches and things like that. In terms of finding them, some of it is just direct outreach, and sometimes we'll work with a PR agency or an influencer agency. Again, it’s a case-by-case basis. We are very intentional about trying to have a mix of more foodie, culinary creators, as well as more fashion, lifestyle or home decor influencers. That has been a big focus for us actually this year. We also work with a mix of creators with larger followings and quite a few micro-influencers. For something like a large color launch, we typically will have several different creators on it, ranging from macro- to micro-influencers. There might also be other one-off, smaller partnerships. We do love year-long partnerships. We have a few of those ongoing people who we’ll work with six or eight times throughout the year and have gotten a lot of value out of those partnerships, for sure. We’ve worked with the same girl on the “Make It Mini” series for a couple of years—her Instagram is @bon__abbetit—and we've had great long-standing partnerships with others like Justin Chapple and Gaby Dalkin of “What’s Gaby Cooking.” @lecreuset Pro tip from @Justin Chapple during a recent event at @crateandbarrel! 🤯 #lecreuset #lecreusettiktok #cookingtiktok #foodtok #tiktokcooks #kitchenhacks #cooking #learnsomethingnew #kitchentips ♬ original sound - Le Creuset What is the biggest risk you’ve taken on social media, and did it pay off? This is a bit of a broad answer, but I think really just activating on TikTok in general was a big risk for us. I mean, we’re an almost-100-year-old French cookware company—maybe not the most obvious fit for a more casual, lighthearted and younger platform like TikTok. But we really saw an audience developing there before we even really got active on it. People were already talking about the brand. And now it's our fastest-growing platform. So, I’d say it’s paid off, but it has definitely been a bit of a risk just because it was so different from what the brand had done before, in terms of that kind of lo-fi positioning. How has the social media manager role shifted over the last few years? I’ve been in the industry for 11 years, so the rise and kind of fall of Facebook has been a big one. But more recently—and I'm sure you've heard this from so many people—but short-form, lo-fi video taking off and the influence that TikTok has had on other channels has been huge. Just kind of adapting to that and seeing how audiences have changed from kind of being used to seeing really highly-styled and perfectly-curated feeds to now shifting towards wanting that kind of more casual and entertaining content that blends in more seamlessly with content from their friends and the influencers that they follow. So, we’re kind of shifting our strategy to follow that and meet those consumers where they are, and adapting our content so that it fits within those growing trends.

How Le Creuset blends TikTok trends and memes with its elevated brand image

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