Harnessing adidas’s brand mantra, ‘Here To Create’, Football Cube, is a touring juggernaut with an immersive hi-tech Virtual Reality experience that identifies the type of football creator our audience aspires to be. No more searching for perfect boots in traditional retail – the right boots find you as surreal football alternative realities envelop and inspire you into believing you’re in four football situations, each scenario reflecting each boot’s key strength.

All without headsets.

So realistic, experience: glue-like ball control, outclassing the opposition, perfect agility and explosive speed.

So disorientating, sick-bags doubled as retail vouchers. You’re eventually dropped into a virtual store, which opens onto a real one.

Developed using VR technology, but displayed across connected walls, ceiling and floor, adidas created a new world where customers are no longer overwhelmed by which boots to choose, instead, they discover you, and you discover the type of player you truly are.

Four new football boots to launch but adidas had a problem: overwhelming choice, price, style, endorsements that don’t connect, and little long-term brand loyalty results in 42% of 18-25 year old adidas shoppers leaving empty-handed. Why? When trying boots, they can’t visualize playing their best possible game – retail isn’t an authentic playing field. Out of context, the boots’ tech is lost, yet this range specifically matches individual playing styles.

Using Culture Labs, our insights platform, one footballer helped us spot our opportunity: “I don’t look up to anyone – Messi wants to be Messi, I want to be me”. Set against adidas’s belief that we’re all creators, ‘Here To Create’ is the brand mantra, our strategy was to evoke the type of football creator each player aspires to be. How? Immerse them in alternate realities.

No more searching for the perfect boots – the right boots will find you.

adidas Football Cube was contained in an expandable articulated lorry which toured across 3 locations: 2 x London and 1 x Paris.

Engagement began with data capture registration in exchange for entry and a sick bag (doubled as a voucher).

Participants entered the Cube after which they experienced the strengths of the four new football boots by trying them on and playing in a gamified trial where creators challenged each other for the chance to win prizes. Set against the four football boots’ key features, the game tested players’ power, accuracy and speed, with winners unlocking rewards and sharing content on Tango, adidas’s football community app.

In London and Essex, the venues were located close to adidas retailers, instantly driving participants to purchase.

The tour visited London’s Stratford Westfield between 3rd and 5th August, Essex’s Thurrock between 9th and 11th August and Paris’s U-Arena between 27th and 29th August, 2018.

UK results:

Total participants in UK: 1,880

Product trial: 73% conversion

Reach and frequency of brand social posts: 17.4m, 55k engagements

Video views: 4.2m

Video completion rate: 42%

YOY sales uplift vs previous sales in activation period: +35%

• adidas Brand NPS in London for August +3.8pp YOY between July-Aug

• adidas Football NPS in London for August NPS +6.2pp between July-Aug

France results:

Total participants in France: 720

Product trial: 81% conversion

YOY sales uplift vs previous sales in activation period: +18% adidas store, Paris