Advertising Case Study
Adidas Facebook Executive Summary
Company Background Client:
adidas is one of the leading sports brands in the
world, with a broad and unique product portfolio
spanning apparel and footwear for professional
athletes, to authentic streetwear and premium
fashion apparel. The global brand, headquartered in
Germany, currently focuses on five global priorities:
Football, Running, Training, Basketball and the
Objective:
Originals label, positioned as “the iconic sportswear
To increase the number of people
brand for the street.” Recognized by its distinctive
who connect to the company’s
Trefoil logo, adidas Originals has many dedicated
Facebook Page among targeted
retail locations around the world.
consumer groups and to generate
video engagement. The company
Objective also sought to reposition one of its
In early 2010, adidas Originals launched a global, mainstay brands.
cross-media campaign designed to reinforce its Solution:
position as the brand’s premier lifestyle offering. A nearly six-month long campaign
Originals is the category through which adidas on Facebook featuring Premium
has reintroduced or reinterpreted many of its Video Comment Ads driving to highly
most recognizable “heritage” products, such as original and engaging content
the white-and-green Stan Smith tennis shoe. But
Key Lessons:
it is also intended to meet the fashion and style
needs of today’s pop-consumed, trend-savvy 14- to • Facebook’s targeting capabilities
25-year-olds. can enable a brand to reach its
target market – in this case 18- to
The brand was seeking to establish an identity that 34-year-olds — in a much more
was clearly aligned with its youthful consumer targeted and comprehensive way
base through original audio-visual content and tone than traditional advertising media
of voice, but that was only half of the battle. adidas • A campaign on Facebook that
also needed a home base from which it could capitalizes on the platform’s
display and distribute all its exciting new content. ability to let brands engage with
What’s more, it was looking to build a network of customers in an original way can
appropriate consumers made up of its target group increase traffic to websites and
to become ambassadors for Originals throughout stores.
their spheres of influence.
adidas Originals settled on building this hub with
its Facebook Page – the free public profile that
enables companies to share their business and
Advertising Case Study
products with consumers on an ongoing basis. One
of the company’s main goals was to increase the
number of people who connected to its Page.
“Facebook was the ideal place because through
its Page, the brand can tell a rich, engaging,
continuous story, says Chris Barbour, adidas’
global head of digital marketing for the sport style
division, “while also leveraging the unique targeting
capabilities of Facebook’s advertising offers to
ensure that it is driving fan growth with the ideal
consumer set.” The hope was that increasing
engagement with its connections on Facebook
would pay off in brand loyalty and in more traffic
to its website and stores.
Approach
The brand campaign adidas Originals launched The ads were intended to prompt users to view the
in early 2010 was intended to reinforce its image entertaining content, comment on it and spread it
and identity through a series of content pieces, virally to their friends on Facebook. The ads for the
launched episodically each month on YouTube, Originals Star Wars collection, for instance, featured
blogs and other online media outlets and on arch-villain Darth Vader with the text telling users
Facebook. The campaign ran in 11 countries “The Death Star is waiting for you to choose your
including Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, next target.” Clicking on the video ad took people
Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, the to a highly engaging application that handed them
United Kingdom and the United States. Each piece “control” of the deck of the Death Star. Integrating
of content was created to highlight and support a maps app, users could blast a street anywhere in
a particular collection including the Originals Star the world, ultimately revealing the adidas Trefoil.
Wars collection (shoes inspired by the sci-fi classic)
in January, the Augmented Reality collection (shoes The Originals Women’s ad, meantime, teased users
with code in their tongues that unlocks access to with the text “Who needs a catwalk?” Clicking on
interactive experiences) in February its Women’s it led to a kinetic video in which adidas models
collection in March. filmed other models, singers and actresses to
showcase the new line in a seductive streetscape.
For each of these monthly peaks, Originals To maximize exposure, adidas ran several reach
purchased a burst of Facebook Premium Video blocks, media buys on Facebook’s homepage that
Comment Ads targeted against very specific guarantee an ad reaches 100 percent of its target
consumer attributes. The company took advantage audience over a 24-hour period.
of Facebook’s anonymized targeting capabilities
to aim its advertising at people who listed “Star All the content had a key purpose: driving people to
Wars”, “science fiction”, fashion, “Lady Gaga” and become connected with the Originals Page, where
other keywords in the Likes & Interests section of the brand could continue the conversation with
their profiles. them about new products, events, sports and other
Advertising Case Study
topics relevant to its customers. “One of the things
that makes Facebook so powerful for advertisers “The ability to target consumers
is that it doesn’t require consumers to learn how with a message and hold on
to interact with your brand,” says Chris. “It’s
natural – the platform and its extensions present
to them as committed brand
opportunities for brands to become a part of the ambassadors which Facebook
innate, familiar ways that consumers are already
allows is unlike anything that the
communicating with each other.”
world of advertising has ever seen.”
Results Chris Barbour
Over the course of the Originals brand’s campaign Global Head of Digital Marketing –
between January and June of 2010: Sport Style Division, adidas
• 228,928 users connected to the adidas Originals
Facebook Page by “liking it’ – a 6 percent
increase.
• The total number of impressions delivered over have been had by consumers about things they’ve
the course of the campaign was more than seen on Facebook. So we absolutely know that the
343 million, with more than 15 million of them community that we’re building on Facebook is, at
organic impressions. least in part, the people who are coming into our
• adidas Originals video ads generated more than stores, which is great.”
722,000 direct engagements.
• Nearly 3.9 million people had as of early The Future
September connected to the adidas Orignals adidas Originals says it plans to further emphasize
Facebook Page, making it one of the top 20 turning its fan base on Facebook into active
brand pages on Facebook. commercial brand participants. It will seek to do
• On the day of a reach block in March, traffic to this by exploring emerging areas of engagement
the adidas website increased 139 percent. such as social commerce and social gaming.
• adidas has seen a steady increase in Originals The company intends to continue to maximize
store traffic over the course of its presence on Facebook’s ad solutions and targeting capabilities
Facebook with many customers noting interest to bolster a following of interested, like-minded
in a particular product because they “saw it on fans that it can naturally convert to customers.
Facebook”.
“We consider the consumers that we’re connecting
“The ability to target consumers with a message with on Facebook to be more than fans,” says
and hold on to them as committed brand Chris. “They are a part of the global adidas
ambassadors which Facebook allows is unlike Originals family. As such, we believe that we must
anything that the world of advertising has ever treat them with the appreciation, respect and
seen,” says Chris. He adds that the brand has also commitment to relationship that is appropriate for
seen an increase in store traffic as a result of its one’s most beloved family members. Our strategy
activities on Facebook. “Literally, we’ve been told of frequent, enlightening, entertaining posts has
by store managers that there are conversations fallen out from this belief.”