Titanium

Before '14 World Cup, adidas launched its biggest campaign and wanted an activation that affirmed it is still the global football leader, France’s favorite brand and illustrate the campaign with a strong message.

The agency proposed adidas affirms its position through a powerful demonstration defining the campaign through a bold and daring launching party. On May 26th, adidas launched its campaign by completely demolishing the symbol of the darkest episode of French football: "the Knysna bus of shame" that 2010 French team refused to descend.

The demolishment took place in the biggest scrap yards of Parisian suburb, in front of media, influencers and happy few.

The main objectives here were to leverage the “all in or nothing” campaign as a dominant media message during the World Cup and to balance media “shockwaves”(KPIs: More than 150 clippings and 3000 publications)

Results: 150 journalists and bloggers present, 300 clippings & 4500 publications.

150 journalists and bloggers present at the event

400 happy few: former football players, opinions leaders, famous journalists...

300 clippings: 20 TV, 20 radios and 11 international

More than 213 million contacts generated (154M web - 37M radio - 19M TV - 2M print)

Feedbacks : 88% of positive feedback - 7% of neutral feedback and 5% of negative feedback.

4500 publications on social networks and 70% of positive feedback.

2 twitter trending topics.

Visibility of the campaign : x8 versus average campaign.

The destroyed bus was then transformed into a piece of art by an artist and sold at auction

The event took place in the biggest scrap yards of the Parisian suburb, the night of May, 26.

The first part of the evening was meant to "prepare" the PR audience for the bus demolition via an industrial scenography and projection of adidas ads.

As an introduction of the destruction, a short movie was projected to remember the darkest period of the French football history.

The climax of the party was reached when the audience was asked to get out not knowing what will happen : the demolition, live, of the Knysna bus. This demonstration illustrate the claim and also the fact that adidas, like every French, wanted to start from scratch.

The campaign almost ran according to the original plan, initially we wanted to bring back the real bus but facing the authorities refusal, we had to recreate the very same bus.

Objectives: leverage the “all in or nothing” campaign as a dominant media message during the 2014 World Cup, create a spectacular moment to create buzz, offer a positive and unique experience, balance media “shockwaves” through PR.

The French team image was low because of 2010 World Cup: the biggest symbol of the football team failure was the "bus of shame", that 2010 team refused to leave. It represents all the things that French blamed their team for. The idea was then to completely destroy this symbol as if French said : we forget the past and look forward... to victory!

This event was relevant for the client who affirmed its position through a powerful demonstration, explaining the message and the fact that adidas still supports the French team even if it isn't its partner anymore, and for the target audience because of the power of the symbol