Case Study

adidas

Giving football fans the ultimate "unfair advantage"

Year2022
ServiceStrategic Communications
SectorSport
OfficeLondon
Capability
Content & Publishing Strategy, Media Relations, Experiential

To mark the launch of the new adidas Predator boot, H&K offered amateur footballers in London the chance to have world class players on their team, bringing to life adidas’ global communications platform “100% unfair.”

A last-minute savior

Using the insight that every casual footballer in London knows what it’s like to scramble for a replacement after a friend drops out of a match, adidas created a WhatsApp bot to respond to the cries for help from the football community. Answering in the most incredible fashion, adidas sent football players including former Lionesses star Eni Aluko, the F2 freestylers and Kaka to step in and surprise London’s amateur players.

The Kaka appearance in Hackney made headlines globally with H&K working quickly to push out viral clips through social aggregators and ensure the earned media coverage stayed on key adidas messaging.

Play

Capitalizing on a viral moment

Hero coverage appeared on Sky Sports, ITV News and Good Morning Britain, as well as 45 online articles in the UK, with 70+ social posts from influential media publishers like SPORTBible.

This included a second wave of coverage when we presented a player who had nutmegged Kaka with Kaka’s signed boots from the game exclusively on ITV London. Social media mentions of adidas and Kaka jumped to 77,000 mentions during and immediately after the match, an increase of 75,000 from before, and an estimated Twitter reach of 469 million.

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