2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

How does adidas increase sales for football boots in the highly competitive youth market during a period with no major tournaments or talkability? For the last 20 years adidas has produced the biggest selling lines of football boots that have been worn by the biggest names in football. That wasn’t enough. The next step? Pulling the plug and creating a new footballing revolution with the introduction of the X, the Ace, and the Messi.

Results and Effectiveness

The adidas Transfer Predictor generated a reach of 15 million with 861 thousand engagement while the user’s average session on this experience averaged between 15 minutes on a daily basis. This was unprecedented compared to any other football user experience. And as curator of this virtual conversation, adidas became the most talked about brand during the 2015 summer period. Our research showed that more than 90% of these users would definitely want to play the transfer window again. While they were classifying it as a “first of its kind” and “will play this game again and again”.

Creative Execution

adidas created a never before seen experience that would leverage on the competitive habits of fans. And so the Adidas Transfer Predictor was born, a fantasy league where users predicted where players would be transferring to and get rewarded based on those predictions. adidas partnered with a global leader to bring transfer news and gossip to the masses, Goal.com. Placing subtle cues of the adidas branding, users were always surrounded by the campaign branding as well as a dedicated tab to bring more news on the line on offer and integrate its content with the gaming progress of the experience.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The opportunity? The transfer window. Football fans worldwide impatiently await every summer for the transfer window to see which superstars are moving clubs and a social scan revealed fan talkability of the window is higher than any major summer tournament. When it comes to football, fans are passionate and fans have an opinion. Fans love to brag about their knowledge on social media and as a result, giving fans a perfect platform to compete against one another from an untapped perspective.