Adidas fires up its largest ad campaign ever.  The 4 print ads of the new campaign, see below, includes Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, singer Katy Perry, mainstream rapper B.o.B., soccer stars David Beckham and Lionel Messi, plus a whole mess of skateboarders recognizable only to people who own skateboards. The ads are straight forward and at least in line with the spot (see post below). Maybe that’s what they wanted to archive, show the authenticity of the sport, the people. No special effects, no funky treatments, the real sport. If it works, not sure. Overall I’m not touched by the new campaign which is the largest marketing campaign in history of the brand. I’m missing the message, or can’t see it in the execution. The spot doesn’t tell me much, a nice collection of moving footage. But no message.

Responsible for the creativity of the new campaign is Montreal’s well known agency “Sidlee” which has a large number of big clients and which was named global lead for the Adidas brand in 2010. Knowing some of their work I still have hope that what we’ve seen so far is part of their launch strategy and not the final result of hours of work with a very big budget. Hopefully there is a participatory element to come. Otherwise it will be pretty replaceable … and that was definitely not the assignment of the brief.