Things have changed rapidly since adidas launched its amateur football league, the Tango League. Today, footballers are not just players, they’re doers, innovators, trendsetters, influencers. They are football creators. As adidas wanted to address this change in behaviour and strengthen ties with its audience, they quickly realised the old web-based platform that was hosting their league wasn’t the ideal channel to communicate with this ever-evolving target audience. So, they asked us to rethink it.

Today, footballers aren’t just players. They're innovators, trendsetters, influencers. As adidas wanted to address this change in behaviour and strengthen ties with its audience, they realised the old web-based platform that was hosting their amateur league wasn’t the ideal channel for their communication. We then took the brief further and instead of just refreshing their old platform we built a social community. Our idea was to give a voice to the streets by creating an open and democratic space where amateur football players could display their skills and creativity. By setting up numerous virtual challenges, the app invites players to show off their talent - and prove to us that they have what it takes to be a football creator. Forget the football celebrities. Now it’s time to let the creators shine.

When launching the app, we took advantage of the existing database adidas had built through the years with their previous Tango League administration portal. We converted the portal users into app users, in an organic way. The app became their new channel, a place where they could follow the news about the events promoted by the Tango League. However, as the time passed, we introduced new features to them, and it didn't take long for them to find out that the app had much more on offer. Do you have what it takes to be a football creator? This is the main call-to-action of the application - a message we've been sending out to footballers, challenging them to show off their skills and creativity, on and off the pitch, through personalised videos.

The app has already been launched in Germany, in France, in Spain, in the UK and in the US. It was launched simultaneously in all five markets, on 30 July 2018. Being a mobile application, the distribution is done via Apple Store and Google Play. Results become increasingly more significant when the comms around the app are connected to Tango League events - meaning that both the app and the events can help each other in terms of promotion. Our strategy is to leverage the buzz around the Tango League events and use it to grow the number of downloads and unique users of the app. Our goal is to reach 300,000 users.

The idea was to build a community platform in the long term. So far, the app has already featured 26 virtual challenges and 220 active newsfeed items - receiving 665 challenge entries and helping form 528 Tango teams. The current numbers are: unique users 35,600, app launches 354,000, best monthly activity 9,490, best daily active 1,050 and best daily new users 1,710. As expected, the app is rapidly becoming a new channel for this new breed of footballers - guys and girls who enjoy creating their own drills, more than just copying what football stars do.