Adidas ads? Are they good, great, bad? Let’s find out.
Grabbing attention when you’re targeting a specific or broad audience nowadays is more than just broadcasting an advertisement using the traditional methods that we know from the past.
TV ads, magazine printouts and billboards aren’t that relevant, and are pretty much invisible to the average consumer.
As people are more and more connected, capturing the attention of the audience can’t be done with the mass-media campaigns anymore.
Instead, now we have engaging, entertaining and useful content that is highly shareable, and people can be encouraged into investing their time and emotions into it. At the heart of delivering such content, we have storytelling.
Emotion drives action, and anyone knows that we, as humans, are actually pretty emotional. This means that clever brands can leverage that emotion and use it to drive sales.
By combining an idea with an emotion, customers can draw connections between brands, and their feelings, beliefs or ideas. At the forefront of such storytelling, we have Adidas. It is one of the most successful brands when it comes to using it as a marketing concept, and it makes use of the years of history and connections, to build a connection with their audience.
Back in 2015, they hired “72&Sunny”, a creative agency that had been tasked with the goal of putting “aggressive storytelling” at the front of Adidas’ advertising campaign. This differs from the Adidas print ads that were popular some time ago, and we’ll take a better look how.
Taking a look at the brand’s history
Adidas’ story as we know it has been in production for over fifteen years.
When you look back, you can think of the 2001 movie “The Royal Tenenbaums”, which has a star-studded cast, and they’re all kitted out in Adidas tracksuits, even for occasions that can be only described as absurd.
Ben Stiller’s character, as well as his twin sons, wore red Adidas tracksuits in the film, only to change them for black ones at a funeral towards the end. This might look like basic product placement, but it is actually a stepping stone in Adidas’ story, when the brand actually became a landmark of a generation, thus establishing the “cool factor” that we still know and love.
When you go back to the product appearances like this, you’ll see how this is actually enough to enhance the “story making” approach. The importance of the company in establishing a powerful and emotional impact in the lives of their customers is more than obvious.
But, how does storytelling work in Adidas ads?
The craft of storytelling is actually much bigger than just showing off how you’ve grown with your audience, and your evolution.
At the most basic level, it’s about building an emotional connection with your audience which is hard to break, and the Adidas marketing strategy has this honed to a fine art.
The “Impossible is Nothing” campaign of 2007 is something that many people remember, and you’ll find that people are still talking about it, even though it was a decade ago.
And, it wasn’t that good because it included a lot of technology, or because of the models or shoes. It was successful because the stories it told were real, authentic, and they actually made an impression on the people who saw it.
The Lionel Messi Adidas advertisement was the basis of the Adidas ads campaign, and it spoke of the battle that he faced with growth hormones, serving as a reminder that even bad things may sometimes lead to positive outcomes.
The phrase “Impossible is nothing” tells the story of glory from defeat, and people are actually associating Adidas with that triumphant spirit ever since.
Making a connection with social values
Adidas has also dipped their toes in the social awareness waters as well, and they’re connecting with important and deep global values. For example, the “#MyGirls” project from 2013 was actually made to support women by celebrating female athletes and young girls who enjoyed being active.
The Adidas marketing campaign began on the International Woman’s day, and rolled out piles of content across multiple advertising channels, thus sharing stories of sportswomen from all around the world.
You could even find Adidas magazine ads in the #MyGirls online magazine, which was made to educate and inform young people on the truth of female sporting success. This campaign, out of nowhere, added an entire chapter to the story, one that pushed women to feel pride in what they achieve, and it also eradicated inactivity in younger people.
Adidas continues to tell stories that help their customers associate their brand, not just with a star sporting presence, but with a great dedication to athletic individuals on a whole.
The “Superstars” campaign by Adidas that was made in 2015, was made as a short-form video format, targeting the mobile environment, and encouraged conversations between celebrities and athletes, thus redefining the way in which people identify superstars.
Thanks to the positive connections between the brand and its customers, Adidas has begun to help the consumers to start feeling better about themselves.
The Adidas story today
Using their own story, as well as the story of others that are connected to them, you’ll find that the primary focus of Adidas’ approach to marketing is in fact storytelling. They have sporting superstars and everyday athletes, and this creates a sense of community with their consumers and fans, turning the brand into an uncompromising household name.
Their latest Adidas advertisement campaign, “Blah Blah Blah”, focuses on the brand’s value of creating a positive message, and it asks people to ignore the “haters”, and try to remember what is really important in the first step of the “First Never Follows” strategy.
Storytelling is everywhere, and the Adidas promotional strategy has established them as one of the best sporting brands around. From real, authentic stories to celebrity endorsement, their narrative has remained consistent, from conception, to the company that we all know and love nowadays.
Chances are that we’ll see more of the storytelling world as we continue to move forward, and we’ll also learn more about the spirit that is behind each individual brand. However, taking a look at the Adidas advertising efforts, you’ll find that they are way ahead of the trend, embracing these solutions long before they appeared as a hot topic in marketing.
Let’s take a look at the numbers
Adidas ads campaign succeeds in driving awareness, as well as engagement, through YouTube takeovers across the digital screens, and with astounding results. The channel views on Adidas’ YouTube channel jumped 26 times, and the subscriber count doubled over the course of the campaign.
The YouTube roadblock got to 4 million more consumers on their mobile devices, and the “All-In” video got over 2 million views in the US.
Adidas advertisements are killing it on social media as well
Analyzing their social channels
Adidas are actually a huge company, and they have several sectors in the business. Each of them requires its own social media presence, and Twitter is a part of that. In this specific situation we’ll focus on the general Adidas channels, instead of the sector accounts.
The @adidas Twitter profile is verified, and this means that all of their followers, currently almost 3.5M, can easily find them. The account mostly retweets the other brand accounts, and serves to bring together the Adidas brand as a whole. The retweets are usually of the images and videos that are posted on the other accounts.
Some tweets are also planned for real-time usage, such as the UEFA Champions League final. During that match, there were images of the athletes that used Adidas equipment, which were used in case there was a key event in the match.
For example, Alvaro Morata and Luis Suarez both scored, and they tweeted an image of the athletes, using the hashtag that was trending for the match. As a global brand, they did get a lot of engagement, meaning this is actually very good planning and Twitter marketing.
Adidas has quite a lot of channels here as well, and their Facebook page shows the same header image branding, albeit with a different logo. However, the logo is similar to the Twitter profile picture and is still very recognizable. Their fan base on Facebook is extremely large, mostly due to the fact that their brand name is very well known worldwide.
One of the ways that Adidas uses to have such a successful social media campaign is by incorporating their brand channels in their existing channels. For example, the videos tab on their Facebook page has the same content from the YouTube channels, and, so do the other Facebook pages within relevance. This is fairly similar to sharing a blog post through the social media accounts of their staff, known as cross promotion.
The video content they have is posted, and so is the other visual content that they’ve used, thus getting the full use out of any content they have. They also like other pages, and also share the content from those pages, which results in their content being shared there as well.
These pages are mostly created for the clients they have, the sportsmen and women they work with, as well as their national teams, clubs or associations. If Adidas release something new, the pages share the content to their audience if they think they’ll be using it, and it comes as news for both parties. Adidas has a new product, and the athlete will be using a new piece of equipment.
YouTube
Adidas goes with a matching header image and logo again, resulting in a very connected social media structure. The ‘featured channels’ section is useful here, as well as the profile information. Their featured video is a campaign that is running currently, but is also relevant for the channel.
Each channel has a specific campaign focused featured video, but as the general account, this one won’t be as focused on one area. Therefore, it becomes the leader of the brand accounts, and influences the audience to take a look at the other accounts for more specifics.
The account doesn’t have a lot of videos, but there are playlists for the videos from the other accounts, and in this way they can collate the relevant content without favouring one sector over the other.
If you have one (or more) great product(s), your social media channels can turn into very visual ones pretty quickly. Visual social media such as Instagram has to be taken seriously, which Adidas does, and their results are also very serious as well. Their products are awesome, which results in thousands of likes, and they also use this to create content around the athletes and products they’re working with.
And, it’s not always about selling products. Their Instagram is used to generate brand awareness, and the great visual content drives enthusiasm and thirst from the users who want to get Adidas products. They have a high influence from the huge amount of engagement they get, and their Klout score is pretty high, resulting in making their other social media channels more influential as well.
Instagram is only one of the channels that Adidas uses well. For example, Adidas supplied the match balls for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Montreal. They posted a picture of the ball for the final match, as well as a view of the stadium, and used Montreal as a location. Therefore, people who are searching for the location will discover the content, and this gets them even more brand awareness.
Great content
Adidas does have an advantage over other companies with the fact that they already have amazing products. In a way, the things they want to sell aren’t really a hard sell, and they already have deals in place for huge stars to endorse and wear their products. Sport video is something people look at pretty often, which is another thing that goes so far for Adidas.
The “There Will Be Haters” campaign with the launch of the new Adidas football boots is a great example, as the adverts and videos created with the stars Adidas uses went viral because of the profile of the stars, as well as the product.
This doesn’t mean that the campaign itself wasn’t excellent, but there was a bit of assistance from the pre-existing profiles that both the players and Adidas have already.
Aside from that, Adidas want to inspire you, and make you want to become like them, which results in you buying the same equipment they do. But, even without that, the content is just so good, that people watch it either way. Avid football fans want to see their favorite stars in a football advert anyways, because these athletes are in-demand, and Adidas makes use of that in their videos.
People want to see and hear these athletes, and get close to them. Even if they don’t want to buy the products themselves, by sharing the content, their connections might want to. That is part of the value that Adidas has from the industry standing, and the way they can work with these stars.
What makes them different?
Their main competitor is perhaps Nike, which is well-known to anyone who knows a bit about sport and brands. However, Nike focuses on the athletes that use their equipment and are contracted to do so, and this separates the two brands. Adidas’ methods are similar, they both share amazing content, and get huge responses. But, what makes Adidas different?
Adidas actually sticks to an enforced company culture, and compared to Nike, they aren’t that fierce as a brand. Their equipment and products are good for the all round sportspeople, from the beginner level, to professionals. They’re more of a “good guy” brand, and this is important.
By no means are Nike the “bad guys”, but they have premiere athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo which can be portrayed in such a way, and this gets swept into the Nike brand too often. As an example, for the launch of Cristiano Ronaldo’s new boots, Nike produced a video that portrayed him as an “out of this world” superstar.
Adidas, on the other hand, recognize their athletes as global stars, and don’t go for the “best in the world” moniker. They don’t commit to debatable statements, such as Cristiano Ronaldo being the best in the world. Sure, he has won an award that lets him claim that, but Messi is contracted to Adidas, and he’s won the same award a few times with no such claims.
As far as social media goes, Adidas has a hierarchy for their channels. The general account oversees and collates all of the content of the other channels, thus promoting the content as a part of the brand. Just like on Twitter, the Adidas account shares the content from the other channels.
This both elevates the brand, and draws attention to the specific areas as well. If you’re attracted to the leader account, you will also be inclined to pay more attention to the other brand accounts as well.
Things to remember about Adidas Ads and their marketing campaigns
Based on the research above, you’ll find that you can actually learn a few lessons from the way Adidas uses marketing and social media. The key ones would be:
- Have a clear strategy (Adidas’ use of separate accounts)
- Visual content is amazing
- Real-time marketing can get you results and engagement
- “Superb content” is absolutely essential
Ending thoughts on Adidas ads
Adidas is a leader in the sporting goods market, and at the heart of the brand there is passion for athletes, sports and products. The brand is built on cutting-edge design, and it’s a brand that is respected for its authentic, inspirational values. This can be seen in their print advertisements.
Organized into three-consumer oriented divisions, Forever Sport, Originals and Equipment, it’s also committed to incorporating the importance of lifestyle which is constantly growing, as well as that of fashion and music inspiration into the sports arena and products. This strategy lets them have a unique Adidas experience, and mean much more to their consumers.
If you liked this article about Adidas ads, you should check out these as well:
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