Mark Hunter
Co-Founder & Creative Director at Accomplice
LONDON, United Kingdom
TitleThe Messiah
Agency
Campaign The Messiah
Advertiser adidas
Brand Adidas Football
PostedJuly 2011
Business Sector Sportswear
Philosophy Adidas came to us with a big challenge: reach the active football-crazed kids (males, 14-19yrs old) who aren’t sitting in from of their TVs. So, we brought the world’s most famous football player, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, to London. With only four hours allotted, we skipped a TV spot endorsement idea and unleashed him to the public via an adidas-branded helicopter. In the weeks leading up to his arrival, we seeded content and cryptic messages online, hinting where Messi would be. The first stop was Hackney Marshes where local teams were in the midst of a game. The second was Brick Lane in East London where we held an on-street "kit amnesty". Here fans were able to trade in their old boots for new F50 adizeros whilst shaking hands with Messi. Thousands took photos and videos and shared it throughout the web. We hit 250,000 Facebook feeds, 368,000 tweets, 3.5 million kids and 41% of the UK. And, all this with zero paid-for media. Proof that a unique idea can earn more media than a pre-planned schedule can ever buy.
Problem The world’s best and most famous football player, Lionel Messi, made a rare and fleeting visit to London providing an opportunity for adidas to generate a PR campaign associating him with their brand. The problem? adidas only had 4 hours in which to squeeze as much PR activity out of him and create a huge buzz amongst a notoriously hard to impress and engage 14-19 year old male audience, who couldn’t be reached behind their TV or computer screens.
Result Within 24hrs we communicated that Messi wears adidas, earned the respect of thousands of our core audience and reached 41% of the UK population, with zero paid-for media. • 250,000 Facebook feeds • 368,000 tweets • 3 blog sites led to 195,264 visitors to adidas & Messi sites • Strong feature on key social networks – Facebook, YouTube & Twitter • 93% of all traditional media coverage was positive • Coverage in traditional media Television, Newspapers & News Websites • The BBC News website featured a photo report of the event • Covered in 25 countries around the world • Facebook and video demographics indicated that those most interested and engaged in the event were our core target audience, 91% Male, 43% aged 13-17 yrs • 3.5 million young football fans saw the activity through TV & press
Media Type Case Study
Executive Creative Director
Creative Director
Creative Director
Creative Director
Creative Director
Account Director
Director
Director
Producer

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