We wanted to avoid the usual Valentine’s Day clichés, so we rejected the obvious romanticised messages and looked for something bolder to cut through the clutter. We wanted to appeal to women everywhere, but with a message or image they’re not used to seeing. Something that would instantly prompt them to think, feel and share.

We created a simple image that was immediately recognisable – and told a universal story. Focused just on the feet and legs of two people, the pose suggests a kiss and love between two women. The caption reads:

“The love you take is equal to the love you make”.

This positive visual statement demonstrated Adidas’ belief in the principles of diversity which are core to its philosophy. It showed that Adidas is a brand for everyone and celebrates love in all its forms – between any two people.

Our image went out on Valentine’s Day on the global Adidas Instagram channel, and the responses started rolling in. Most fans congratulated us, and the mainstream media embraced the story, universally praising Adidas for its support of the LGBT community.

Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with our message of love and diversity, and negative comments exploded under our post:

“Shame on you Adidas!!!! I’m going to Nike now”

When the haters threatened to desert us, we didn’t falter, retract or regret. We offered a simple, sweet emoji reply – waving bye bye and blowing a kiss.

But the haters were in the minority and Adidas were recognised for keeping our positivity and sense of humour in the face of negative attacks. People were still talking about the post a week later. It even attracted celebrity reposts from Rita Ora and Ellen DeGeneres, who shared the image with her 26 million fans.

Our iconic image became Adidas’ most liked post ever across all their Instagram channels, even defeating previous posts featuring big-name athlete ambassadors. People embraced our response and responded with highly positive comments:

“I’m going to go buy some Adidas shoes now” and “Wish I was a shareholder!”

This Valentine’s Day post celebrating love united friends and fans on social media, in support for a marginalised community. What’s more it also shattered previous campaign results, achieving:

• 360% higher engagement than an average post for Adidas on Instagram

• Over 1 billion reached through 150 pieces of earned media coverage

• 42,000 new followers on the day of the post

All with:

• Zero paid media spend

• No media outreach

• No paid ambassadors

We engaged our target audience, women aged 15 to 35, on their favourite social channel on the second most Instagramed day of the year: Valentine’s Day.

We knew our audience would have our back, as 73% of 16-35 year olds support same-sex marriage (Pew Research Center). We also knew many people wouldn’t share our views. But we were ready for them with a set of issues management guidelines.

Not every brand is brave enough to create a social media storm on the international day of love. We knew negative reactions might be strong and hard to contain. But we believed starting an honest, open-hearted conversation with our fans would ultimately have a positive effect on the brand.

Adidas has a proven track record of supporting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. And we knew our community would respect us for sticking to our guns.

Adidas is one of the only sportswear brands to have specifically researched the unique anatomy of the female feet and created a shoe to fit, rather than simply adapting men’s designs. So we knew we’d have a big message for women everywhere with the launch of the PureBoost X, a new running shoe created for women, by women.

The running community is very active on Instagram, and the channel is an important way for Adidas to reach their target audiences of both female 15-35 year olds and sports enthusiasts.

With one of Instagram’s busiest days (Valentine’s Day) approaching, we were faced with a unique challenge – how could we create a piece of stand-out content that celebrated love through the lens of the world’s first female-only running shoe…?