After 25 years away, adidas football was returning home to Arsenal and London as the club’s kit sponsor.

We wanted the whole world to know adidas were back, get people hyped for the new kit and cement adidas as the football brand in London.

At a time when Britain was facing increasing divisions and decisions over its make-up, it’s ‘borders’… and its future due to Brexit. We knew Arsenal were the only football club who could rally against that, and embrace London’s true power, it’s diversity.

We didn’t want to just launch a new kit, we wanted to create a moment that the whole of London could get behind.

We told the story of how Arsenal players from around the world have become part of the very fabric of North London and that ‘you ain’t born a Londoner…you’re made one’.

We created a film where we dubbed foreign first team players with proper London voices, recorded by lifelong Arsenal fans and filming the players out and about around famous Arsenal hotspots, from match day cafés, local barbers, fish and chip shops and the Arsenal supporters club.

We recruited Arsenal legend Ian Wright to tell our story, and cast real fans, past legends and famous fans as our supporting actors too including ex-captain Tony Adams, YouTube mega stars the F2 Freestylers and Hollywood actor and golden globe winner Idris Elba, all playing a part to add to our reach and earned potential.

We wanted the whole world to know adidas were home, and cement adidas as the football brand in London.

At a time when Britain was facing increasing divisions and decisions over its make-up, its ‘borders’ and its future because of Brexit. We knew Arsenal were the only football club who could rally against that, and embrace London’s true power, its diversity.

We used a mix of nostalgia, Easter Eggs and insights throughout the film that we knew fans would respond to; to create an excitement ahead of adidas’ return and the new season.

We wanted to go way beyond a normal kit launch and instead create a piece of content that reminded Arsenal fans of the proud history of their club, and the connection of the club to the community.

The film was leaked ahead of the launch, then was posted across official adidas, Arsenal and talent social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Casting real fans, legends and famous fans as our supporting actors too, including ex-captain Tony Adams, YouTube mega stars the F2 Freestylers and Hollywood actor Idris Elba all adding to our reach and earned potential.

On social media we gave players and talent bespoke content to post at launch, telling us what they thought about the new kit in London slang, dubbed with fan voices. This delivered further reach on social and prompted remixes, edits and memes shared by fans and rivals.

The supporting out of home campaign appeared across London, including a newspaper wrap on launch day, a mural by artist and fan Reuben Dangoor and takeovers of a London underground station, the Arsenal shop and the adidas flagship store.

Resulting in 15M+ total video views, 7.3M+ organic views in first 24 hours, #1 trending on Twitter, an 84% increase in demand for the shirt, a 161% increase in search traffic and 830M+ online PR reach, including coverage from the biggest sites in the world – The Sun, The Daily Mail, New York Times, Fox Sports, NBC Sports etc.

The film became a meme for fans and rivals, being giffed and remixed, the new home shirt became the best-selling home shirt ever.

The players adopted the North London slang they had learnt on the shoot, using it in training and were even being asked to stop using it on competitor shoots.

The film restored fans’ belief in the club, cementing adidas as the football brand in London.