The NBA all-star and adidas athlete Derrick Rose was going to be in London for just one day, and we had exactly 2 hours of his time to turn him into an urban brand icon.

Our target audience? Kids on council estates whose lives and environment mirrored the violent Chicago neighbourhood Derrick Rose himself grew up in.

The problem? While he’s a household name in the US, in the UK no-one has ever heard of him outside of the minority who play or follow basketball.

Our brief? Make these kids, who are often cynical and hostile towards brands in their neighbourhood, care about an athlete and sport they knew little about.

We knew we had a role model in D Rose – someone who had risen out of one of the most violent neighbourhoods in America through sheer effort and commitment. Now we had to present him to kids in a way that was authentic and inspiring.

So we created The D Rose Jump Store – their chance to show themselves, and the world, how talented they might be at a game many had never played.

Instead of buying their attention, we created an idea they were desperate to share: ‘free shoes if you can jump 10ft.’

With no paid media, we got kids talking by connecting D Rose’s story to their own.

In just 2 hours we created positive opinion about an athlete few knew, changed behaviour around a sport few play, and elicited trust amongst a group who distrust authority.

First we picked a location for the pop-up-store designed to get people talking. The Community Centre we were going to convert sits in between the local college and a series of tower blocks.

3 days before the live event, we went to a local youth basketball tournament to hand out business cards with a map and image of the store to coaches, community workers and kids.

At the same time, we launched #jumpwithdrose on London’s pirate radio stations, using free shoes as payment. We also put free posters up in local chicken shops within a mile radius.

On the day we drove conversation through our #jumpwithdrose, by including it on the façade of the building.

Our online film then allowed basketball and sneaker blogs around the world to run the story, whilst a hyper local exhibition celebrated the kids who jumped on their streets.

The campaign ran as planned.

Kids started queuing 8 hours before the store even opened, and over 2,500 turned up to watch the action.

The kids who jumped didn’t just show themselves how talented they were, they showed the world. The resulting online film reached 370,000 views in the first 5 days, and was shared by 8% of those who watched it.

It was also featured by all the key basketball websites including ‘Ballislife’ and ‘Hoopsfix.’

While this gave kids social kudos on a global scale, we knew that they also wanted recognition from the streets, so we created hyper local posters to celebrate their achievements in the areas where they lived.

As for adidas, our #jumpwithdrose reached 327,000 Twitter users. We achieved the highest ever UK search volume for D Rose, and we delivered conversation volume 20x higher than Nike’s in the same period.

We achieved 4 million online impressions, equivalent earned media value of £2million, and positioned D Rose as a vehicle for change.

But there was one statistic that outshone all others. In the following days and weeks, kids in over 30 countries around the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe, begged adidas to open a D Rose Jump Store where they lived.