Coach Taps Gen Z for Co-Created Campaign
Coach's latest global campaign was co-created with Gen Z communities around the world. The strategy illustrates a hybrid model that blends authentic user creativity with professional, digital-first workflows to maximize cultural resonance.
The "Explore Your Story" Spring 2026 campaign is the result of deep consumer immersions, including in-home visits with Gen Z women across the U.S., China, Japan, and Korea. This research revealed a generation that, despite being digitally native, is turning to long-form storytelling and books to explore identity, leading to the campaign's central theme. To execute this, Coach partnered with a range of Gen Z-led cultural platforms. Collaborators include Sunnie, the social book club from Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, China's primary youth media outlet China Youth Daily, video platform Bilibili, and publishers like Penguin Random House. The partnership even extends into sports through a collaboration with the WNBA. This co-creation model directly influenced the product, leading to a collection of readable book charms designed for the brand's iconic Tabby bag. According to Coach CMO Joon Silverstein, the process involved these communities in defining the insight, shaping the narrative, and selecting the books, marking it as the brand's most co-created campaign to date. This community-focused strategy runs parallel to Coach's other major Gen Z initiative, "Find Your Courage," which leans heavily into AI and virtual identity. That campaign, directed by Vallée Duhamel, features the virtual human Imma alongside celebrity ambassadors like Lil Nas X, Camila Mendes, and Kōki in a CGI-driven world. The "Find Your Courage" narrative follows Imma on a journey to discover what makes her "real" by learning the unique "superpowers" of each human ambassador. This approach allows Coach to explore themes of authenticity and self-expression that resonate with a generation navigating multiple online and offline identities. Both campaigns are anchored in Coach's overarching brand purpose, "The Courage to Be Real," a strategy of "expressive luxury" implemented by Global CMO Sandeep Seth. This shift from product-centric marketing to a purpose-led platform aims to build brand love and cede some creative control to consumers. The strategy appears to be yielding financial results for Coach's parent company, Tapestry, Inc. In the fiscal quarter corresponding with these campaign strategies, Coach's revenue saw a significant increase, with Tapestry's CEO noting that the brand's relevance with Gen Z is influencing all other generations and driving customer acquisition.
