HEYDUDE Social Media Marketing

How Canoe built and continuously refined an always-on social media strategy for HEYDUDE in the UK.

Social / Social Strategy / Talent / Content / Fashion

The challenge

HEYDUDE had a distinctive product, a clear personality and growing recognition in the UK. The opportunity was to turn these ingredients into a stronger social media presence that could support the brand’s continued growth.

This was not simply about filling a content calendar or applying one campaign idea across every channel. HEYDUDE needed a social media strategy shaped around how people use Instagram and TikTok, with enough consistency to build recognition and enough flexibility to respond to new products, campaigns and cultural moments.

The work evolved over time. Brand priorities shifted and audience behaviour became clearer through delivery. Rather than treating each development as a new direction, Canoe built a social operating system that could adapt without losing its purpose.

Defining the role of social media

Social media needed to do more than broadcast marketing messages. It had to give HEYDUDE a recognisable role in people’s feeds, make its personality easier to understand and connect its products with relevant interests and communities.

Canoe translated the wider brand platform into a practical social media marketing framework. This brought together brand storytelling, product communication, creator content, commercial priorities and community management within one channel strategy.

The aim was to help HEYDUDE behave more like a social brand: listening as well as publishing, responding to relevant conversations and working with people who understood the behaviour of each platform.

People do not experience social platforms as an orderly sequence of brand campaigns. They move between creators, entertainment, recommendations, conversations and products, often within the same session. HEYDUDE needed to participate in that environment rather than simply place branded content inside it.

Giving each social platform a clear role

Instagram and TikTok were treated as connected social media channels with different jobs.

Instagram provided a richer expression of the HEYDUDE world. It brought campaign assets, product stories, creator collaborations and community content into a more considered visual system.

TikTok required a different pace and creative approach. The strategy gave greater weight to humour, personality, platform trends, creator behaviour and ideas developed around the way people watch and share content.

The distinction went beyond changing dimensions or shortening edits. Social media content needed to reflect the expectations of each platform.

This gave the team a clearer basis for planning. Instead of asking how one asset could be adapted for every channel, Canoe could consider the role of each idea, the target audience it needed to reach and where it was most likely to work.

Building an adaptable content strategy

HEYDUDE’s social presence needed to support several brand and commercial objectives without becoming fragmented.

Canoe developed a content system covering:

  • Brand storytelling and the wider HEYDUDE world
  • Product launches and seasonal priorities
  • Styling and product education
  • Creator-led social media content
  • Community stories and audience participation
  • Reactive and culturally responsive formats
  • Commercial messages
  • Social media campaign support
  • Channel-specific entertainment

These were not rigid content pillars designed to force every idea into the same format. They provided enough structure to maintain a consistent social media presence while allowing the creative work to develop.

Some posts built the wider brand world. Others focused on products, styling or seasonal messages. Creator content introduced different voices and communities, while reactive formats and community management allowed HEYDUDE to take part in relevant conversations.

Not every post needed to carry the complete brand story. The strength came from how the different parts worked together over time.

Integrating creators into the strategy

Creators were part of the channel model rather than an extra layer added after the content strategy had been agreed.

Through the Dude Squad and wider creator relationships, Canoe connected HEYDUDE with different interests, creative styles and audience communities. Talent could contribute humour, styling, sport, music, outdoor perspectives and other relevant points of view.

Creator selection was based on the role each person could play, not audience size alone. Canoe considered their creative output, audience quality, interests, brand fit and whether HEYDUDE products could appear naturally within their existing work.

This gave the brand access to content that behaved differently from conventional campaign assets. It also allowed HEYDUDE’s social channels to present the product through a broader mix of people, settings and cultural perspectives.

Briefs established a clear purpose and the essential brand requirements without prescribing every detail. Creators had enough direction to understand the objective while retaining the qualities that made their work credible to their followers.

Community management and audience insight

Publishing was only one part of the process. Canoe used community management to understand how consumers were responding and where HEYDUDE could play a more active role.

Comments, questions and recurring audience behaviour became a live source of insight. They helped identify which products, formats, personalities and messages were creating interest, as well as where further information was needed.

Community management also allowed the brand to participate between planned posts. Responses needed to reflect HEYDUDE’s personality without becoming scripted or forcing humour into every conversation.

The audience strategy became more focused as the work developed. Broad brand personas can establish an initial direction, but they do not always reflect how people behave on social media platforms.

Canoe used content performance, community response and observed platform behaviour to develop more practical audience groups. This later audience research did not replace the original strategy. It made it more precise.

By considering why people might notice, watch, share or engage with HEYDUDE content, Canoe could refine future content decisions, creator selection and product storytelling.

Turning strategy into daily delivery

The visible content was supported by a detailed operating model.

Canoe managed planning, content development, creator briefing, approvals, publishing, community management and monthly reporting. This allowed brand, commercial and cultural priorities to move through one connected process.

The work included:

  • Social media and content strategy
  • Instagram and TikTok planning
  • Campaign and product integration
  • Monthly content calendars
  • Creative development and copywriting
  • Creator identification and briefing
  • Content feedback and approvals
  • Publishing and channel management
  • Reactive content and community management
  • Social media performance reporting
  • Ongoing optimisation

This structure mattered because the strategy was not static. The team needed to respond to product launches, available resources, audience signals and changing platform behaviour without rebuilding the approach every month.

The operating model gave HEYDUDE consistency while leaving room for judgement and adjustment.

Learning from social media performance

Monthly reporting was treated as a working part of the strategy.

Canoe reviewed reach, views, engagement, follower growth and individual content performance alongside the creative context behind each result. The purpose was not simply to identify the largest metrics, but to understand why particular content had travelled or prompted a response.

These reports produced valuable insights for the next stage of delivery. Social media performance could inform the following content calendar, strengthen creator briefs, clarify channel roles and show where a brand or product message required a different approach.

This created an ongoing connection between strategy, content creation and performance analysis. The ambition to build a more social brand remained consistent, while formats, audience priorities and creative ideas could change as the evidence developed.

Selected social media performance clusters

The figures below are selected monthly reporting clusters. They demonstrate the scale of delivery during individual periods but are not cumulative or final programme totals.

  • November: 3.49 million organic reach, 10.62 million views and 1,244 new followers
  • December: 1.18 million organic reach, 3.31 million views and a 6.27% average engagement rate
  • March: 3.68 million organic reach, 10.33 million views and 2,389 new followers
  • May: 1.46 million organic reach, 2.19 million views and 1,679 new followers
  • June: 2.04 million organic reach, 3.81 million views and 856 new followers
  • July: 1.86 million organic reach, 6.70 million views and 1,035 new followers

Individual creator executions provide further examples of performance:

  • One December creator post reached 51,183 people, generated 809,816 views and recorded a 22.79% engagement rate
  • A February creator execution generated approximately 560,000 views
  • One April creator post reached 230,751 people, generated 336,009 views and recorded a 4.24% engagement rate
  • One piece of HEYCATION creator content reached 52,692 people and generated 2,475 engagements

These examples come from separate reporting periods and content clusters. They have not been combined to suggest an overall programme result.

Building a social system that could evolve

HEYDUDE’s social media activity developed through new campaigns, audience learning, creator collaboration and the practical experience of running always-on channels. Canoe’s role was to give that development a coherent structure.

Instagram and TikTok had clearer roles. Creators became part of the channel model. Community response informed the work and monthly performance shaped what happened next. The brand could remain recognisable without making every piece of content look or sound the same.

This social media marketing case study shows that a useful strategy is more than a collection of content pillars or a publishing schedule. It is a working system connecting brand direction, platform behaviour, creators, communities and performance.

Canoe builds and manages social media strategies for fashion, outdoor, performance and culture brands. We combine cultural understanding, creator relationships, channel management and ongoing audience insight to make social media more useful to the wider brand.

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