Cannes Lions

Adidas Originals "Pressure" (South Africa)

SHIBOBO!, Johannesburg / ADIDAS / 2024

Film
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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Background

The briefed objectives were:

-Drive consideration for the Terrace line, continuing to build on our label reset by showing the current ‘thousands’ who represent our Originals.

-Credibly connect with consumers authentically representing a broad array of subculture tribes increasing resonance, desirability & driving conversion.

The Adidas global team rolled out a film featuring a tableau of athletes who found themselves overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding pressure. The filmmakers shot these moments at a 4:3 aspect ratio, black and white while an eerie ambient cover of Queen’s “Under Pressure” rings out, dialing up the stakes for each of the characters.

In looking to own the medium for our home market, we dropped a lot of the polished-feeling camera work of the global film and opted for something that felt grittier and at home in Joburg. To double down on a desire for timelessness, we shot the campaign on 35mm film.

Execution

The film is about characters feeling the weight of competition, feeling overwhelmed by internal and external pressures before taking a deep breath, finding a sense of calm within and rising up to conquer the moment.

19-year-old EPL favorite, Rotomo performs the cross-bar challenge popularised but Ronaldinho. He strikes the crossbar twice before trapping it and sending an impossibly long shot curling toward the top left corner.

Tidra Langa, a Ice-skater with Olympic aspirations Practices a complicated sequence failing repeatedly before finding a sense of confidence in Global designer icon Rich Mnisi. She lands the jump and is celebrated with “1000” scores, a nod to the brand’s 1000 originals tagline. A skater and runner bound for the olympic games carry the torch, Ronwen Williams SA’s famed keeper who saved 4 penalties, stands with his arms stretched wide a universal invitation to “test the keeper” as a sea of bodies swarm around.

Outcome

Having just rolled out the Campaign we are still tracking it's rollout. We can update the impact as digital agency reports.

The full 4-minute film rolls out as a music video on Mtv, Trace, Channel O in South Africa for a period before transitioning to digital-only in the 90” format. On socials, we have an organic footprint of 5m followers across the accounts we're delivering on and expect the organic media pickup to be substantial given the caliber of sports and cultural partners involved.

That said, given the timing we can happily update the engagement and reach in the next 30 days and will include a report here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/z3bazq9wgpiegfko3xiqi/ABufJaCzKt-BP2kdEjNrG3k?rlkey=9kv698spt6zs95cighnvpms9g&dl=0

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