Whilst there are restrictions around branded content in the UK, our real challenge came from the fact our target audience are far from classic ‘consumers’ of content.

Their TV viewing is random and sporadic. They’re out on the streets more than they are online. The radio stations they listen to are illegal. And they don’t read newspapers or magazines.

Their social networks are largely impenetrable, centring on physical spaces like chicken shops, or on mobile platforms like BBM.

The majority of brands that try and talk to them using content either come from the streets, or fall flat on their faces trying to look like they do.

But the beauty of content is it had the potential to give our target group the things many of them crave – attention, recognition and fame.

By offering kids on one of the roughest council estates on the country – kids who are demonised by the media and ignored by society – the chance to become ‘content stars’ we believed we could overcome their natural hostility and cynicism.

We knew if we could create content that was both compelling and original, it wouldn’t just be Hackney watching them, it would be the world.

NBA superstar Derrick Rose was going to be in London for just one day, and we had exactly 2 hours of his time to turn him into an urban brand icon for adidas.

Our target audience? Kids on council estates whose lives and environment mirrored the violent Chicago neighbourhood Derrick Rose himself grew up in.

The problem? While he’s a household name in the US, in the UK no-one has ever heard of him outside of the minority who play or follow basketball.

Our brief? Make these kids care about an athlete and sport they knew little about. They’re rightly cynical, and often hostile, towards brands in their neighbourhood.

So our challenge was to engage them. And not just talk to those who cared about basketball.

We knew we had a readymade role model in D Rose – someone who had risen out of one of the most violent neighbourhoods in America with sheer effort and commitment. Now we just had to present him to kids in a way that was authentic and inspiring.

Our concept? Bring their stories together by creating epic content that both the kids and D Rose could be a part of.

So we converted their run down community centre into the D Rose Jump Store. We filled it with hundreds of pairs of free D Rose signature basketball shoes on shelves 10ft high. We told them the only currency accepted was commitment and sweat.

We told kids about the event in media channels they actually respect by launching #jumpwithdrose on pirate radio stations, and posters in chicken shops.

The word of mouth this generated was enough for kids to start queuing 8 hours before the store even opened.

After the event we created an online film, giving these kids kudos on a truly global scale.

To create authenticity we launched the campaign idea and the #jumpwithdrose on London’s pirate radio stations.

Next we put up free posters in changing rooms and chicken shops within a mile radius of the store that drove kids to #jumpwithdrose.

Then we hit the streets to tell kids what we were doing. Instead of buying their attention we created an idea they were desperate to share: ‘free shoes if you can jump 10ft.’

On the day, a large #jumpwithdrose on the storefront directed conversation, and finally drove kids to see the online film of their exploits a week later.

Kids started queuing 8 hours before the store even opened, and over 2,500 turned up to watch the action.

The kids who jumped didn’t just show themselves how talented they were, they showed the world. The resulting online film reached 370,000 views in the first 5 days, and was shared by 8% of those who watched it.

It was also featured by all the key basketball websites including ‘Ballislife’ and ‘Hoopsfix.’

While this gave kids social kudos on a global scale, we knew that they also wanted recognition from the streets, so we created hyper local posters to celebrate their achievements in the areas where they lived.

As for adidas, our #jumpwithdrose reached 327,000 Twitter users. We achieved the highest ever UK search volume for D Rose, and we delivered conversation volume 20x higher than Nike’s in the same period.

We achieved 4 million online impressions, equivalent earned media value of £2million, and positioned D Rose as a vehicle for change.

But there was one statistic that outshone all others. In the following days and weeks, kids in over 30 countries around the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe, begged adidas to open a D Rose Jump Store where they lived.