adidas World Cup “Eye Ball”
Connected Experiential
Brief as received
The FIFA World Cup Germany will be the most technologically advanced world cup, it’s on our home turf and we want to win.
Imagine a big, exciting and compelling new way to bring adidas closer to football's biggest asset -- the fans -- and reinforce our brand status as unmatched in football.
Research & Insights
Online survey and vox-pops with global football fans from 20 markets.
Adidas had high awareness and brand favorability in football, but Nike was seen as more innovative to the younger respondents. Nike had made recent gains with football fans as a brand consumers would consider in Football, particularly in the EU.
Adidas was no longer “un-touchable” in global football.
Re-framed brief
How do we RE-own World Cup Germany in the minds of football fans in a big, exciting and innovative way?
How do we demonstrate adidas innovation across Europe leading up the World Cup Tournament and in Germany during it?
Sharpened audience definition
All sports fans, but a particular focus on the 16-24 year old fans as they buy the most athletic footwear and apparel and are most influenced by “innovative new experiences."
Problem identified
adidas were the undisputed category leader during last WC, but now the “worlds largest challenger brand” (nike) was threatening to take the next generation of football fans.
adidas weren’t matching the marketing innovation intensity of the challenger.
Insight that shed new light
The World cup brings countries and people together from all over the world.
The World Cup isn’t a tournament without the (adidas) ball.
There is no World Cup without adidas.
Marketplace & cultural understanding
The World Cup was going to be hugely cluttered with many, many of the worlds largest brands doing huge attention grabbing activations.
Advertising had shifted from the last WC, from telling the consumer what we wanted to say, to delivering digital and connected experiences.
Buying more media wasn’t going to determine the perceived leader of the World Cup.
A new way of thinking about the product or brand
Bring adidas’ roll, of bringing people from different countries together with the TEAMGEIST ball, to life… and then supersize it.
Work the brief inspired
“The Eyeball”
A pair of six meter TEAMGEIST footballs packed with technology, connected to the internet and traveling separately through Europe.
The Eyeball created a “live portal” from one country to another, connecting fans through games, content and World Cup challenges.
Integrated microphones measured who’s fans were the loudest and motion sensors measured foot races front of the giant orbs. Trivia and other on-screen country-vs-country contests were hosted by adidas athletes.
Winners were tallied by their countries while the Eyeball kept score between all participants though the “worlds largest stadium.” The more countrymen won challenges, the more seats their country got in the huge virtual stadium - proving what country was home to the most passionate World Cup fans.
The Eyeball connected everyone’s excitement around the world through it’s always-on “Fan Ticker,” from a hundred of feet away via text, or a thousands of miles away via adidas.com.
Results
adidas won the Germany World Cup - Increasing all metrics in innovation and brand favorability against rivals.
The two giant interactive multimedia orbs, equipped with vanguard technology and featuring stunning design, traveled across Europe stopping in iconic locations across Italy, Spain, UK, and France before eventually arriving in Germany for the tournament itself.
The Eyeball set adidas records in out-of-home interactions over four months with 100,000 contests played, more than three million messages to The Eyeball and delivering over 25 million unique and innovative brand impressions online and in-real-life before the World Cup had even begun.
Over 15 million +Teamgeist footballs, were sold worldwide, a record that more than doubles the previous record of 6 million for the adidas Fevernova Match Ball of the previous World Cup™.
For adidas, the FIFA World Cup proved to be a great commercial success with record football sales of over 1.2 billion euros, up more than 30% from the previous year.
The adidas "+10" World Cup Campaign won 2006 Advertiser of the Year at the Cannes Festival.