Situation

adidas are seen as the world’s number one football brand. But consumer perceptions and brand loyalty – just like the game itself – never stand still. This is a fiercely competitive market where, more than ever, you need to stay relevant and authentic to survive.

Brief

In short: the most creative boot launch of the year. Maybe ever.

In longer: cement adidas’s football creds by proving its commitment to creators (at a global level) while mobilising core communities in a meaningful way (at a local level). All in support of the brand’s strategic focus on Key Global Cities and Open Source Thinking.

Objectives

Make COPA 19 the biggest selling boot for adidas in Q1.

Tap into four major footballing hubs – London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles – as well as the wider online community.

Set a new benchmark for creative, open-source collaboration, internally and externally.

We positioned COPA 19 like this: it’s for the orchestrator. The silent leader who directs the game and brings out the best in everyone, without seeking the spotlight.

In that spirit, we found the best young creative talent in our four cities and handed the brief to them.

Our London team likened the city’s sensory overload to the onslaught faced by the playmaker on the pitch. COPA is how you beat the rush.

In LA they celebrated what their city allows people to become, alongside the potential COPA gives you. The city, like the pitch, is a canvas. COPA is your tool.

Paris is a playground to our creators, so they showcased urban discovery and street football, with COPA helping you create your own game.

And our New Yorkers compared the subway – the pulse shared by five distinct boroughs – with the COPA player, the heartbeat of any team.

Our target was the 15 to 19-year-old football player. For them, football shapes everything: their style, their life in the city, their view of the world. They smell bullshit from a mile. And, crucially, they’re influenced far more by their peers than by big ol’ brands.

Just talking their language wasn’t going to cut it. We needed to step back and let this generation do their own thing, from start to finish.

After scouring the key cities we found 40 creators from London College of Communication, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), High School of Fashion Industries (New York) and USC Iovine and Young Academy (LA).

We teamed them up with members of adidas Tango Squad, for real football insight, and offered them coaching throughout the process. But we never took over. To keep the work pure, powerful and pertinent, this had to be fully theirs.

Each team mapped out a full consumer journey, adapted for their city, using the channels available: windows, in-store displays, engagement zones, digital activations and real-world experiences. As far as budget allowed, no ideas were off the table. And everything was rolled out over three months.

Here are just some of the highlights.

London: glitchy in-store motion content calmed by handling the product; immersive rain wall celebrating weatherproof leather; goalscoring activation featuring a replica London Underground carriage.

Paris: playable city featuring authentic street furniture; interactive product displays and screens; fixtures and activations to test your skill.

New York: digital graffiti wall allowing consumers to customise COPA; event featuring local street artists; group keepy-up challenge.

LA: blank walk-in tank transformed into immersive projection by placing product on an interactive easel; festival celebrating football and creativity (with celebrity DJs, LAFC players and the chance to design apparel).

We were tasked with making COPA the biggest selling boot for adidas in Q1. Great news: it was, and in some style. Across the four cities there was a year-on-year sales uplift of 32%.

When it came to tapping into grassroots football communities in those cities, we managed to reach more than 60,000 consumers in our target demographic. In terms of wider reach online, there were more than 64 million digital impressions.

All of which delighted adidas, and not just commercially. This crystallised a big cultural shift; the first proof of their new open-source way of working. A true, living legacy.

Which led to arguably the most exciting result of all: a surprise invitation to some of our young creators to spend a week at adidas HQ in Germany – exhibiting their work, sharing their story and inspiring colleagues to create in a whole new way.