UAE is a nation of couch potatoes. According to a new research, it’s the 6th laziest nation in the world. The reason - a comfort-obsessed culture which dissuades people from being active.
In a society where there’s no exercise culture let alone running, how do you excite people about anew running shoe?
Adidas needed to launch Boost –the new running innovation. The shoe was made of a new material that returns energy back to the runner. The brand’s challenge was to bring the technology to life. But energy return was a complex proposition to communicate.
Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation
We built the World’s first treadmill vending machine – a treadmill which uses energy as a currency and rewards runners on their calories burned. To use the vending machine, runners simply had to run on the treadmill. The machine counted the running joules which were displayed on the vending machine screen. A reward was then dispensed to the runner based on his/her performance.
The rewards were all about energy – ranging from Red Bull to energy bars and Adidas running gear. And if you were really good, the machine could even vend you Boost shoes.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
In just 2 weeks, we had 926 runners participating –surpassing our expectation by about 54%. *
4 weeks into the campaign Boost shoes were fully sold out across UAE achieving a sell through rate of 100%. Boost’s share of adidas running category more than doubled to 11%. **
The campaign generated a huge amount buzz on social media, blogs, portals dedicated to health & fitness translating into an earned media value of $565,000- more than 3 times the investment ***
The treadmill had become so popular that adidas brought it back for the Dubai marathon 2014
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
The treadmill vending machine was designed for youngsters to break out of their comfort zone and get active. We all know that UAE is a nation of couch potatoes. According to a new research, it’s the 6th laziest nation in the world where 4 out of 5 people do not get enough physical exercise to keep themselves healthy (Source: Lancet Medical Journal). The reason - a heavily car-dependent and comfort-obsessed culture which dissuades people from being active.
And the idea of running on a treadmill in the middle of a shopping mall was an experience they wouldn’t forget.