Today’s generation of kids is the most sedentary in our history. They spend more time on their screens than any generation that has come before them, with serious global health issues as a consequence. Our challenge was to get this generation of gamers to get moving.

Besides the incredible technical challenges of the product, there were some unique objectives to meet:

1. Appealing to a younger audience than traditional fitness trackers

2. Changing the embedded behaviour of players

3. Sustaining engagement – a first for an adidas campaign

EA Sports is the world’s biggest gaming franchise, and their game ‘FIFA Mobile’ has over 300 million players worldwide. FIFA Mobile is normally a static game in which players build up their players by gaming on their mobile phone. We decided to change that.

GMR is a smart insole aimed at getting a generation of young gamers moving by connecting their in-game FIFA Mobile skills with real life activity. The fitter they get in real life, the fitter their players become in the game. The more they train their shots and passes, the stronger their in-game players’ shots and passes become.

The in-sole fits any boot, from any brand. To launch it, we tapped into gamers’ competitive nature, and injected social competition into every element of the campaign – from product development to comms.

For our target audience - a sedentary generation of young people, spending more time on their screens than any generation before them - using health as an argument wasn’t going to be enough of a motivation to get them on their feet.

We uncovered a simple but powerful human motivation that united fans of gaming and football - social competition. Or in other words, getting one up on your mates.

To get gamers moving, GMR connects their in-game FIFA Mobile skills to their real life activity. The launch campaign similarly took the competitive behaviour of gaming into the real world and put social competition at the heart of everything – from product development to comms - and got gamers moving in the real world to improve their in-game performance.

GMR launched in adidas stores worldwide, with a global campaign spanning: Online launch film, Social films & activation, key visuals, in-store takeovers, product films, an influencer campaign and football talent challenges.

GMR is an ongoing event within the FIFA Mobile game. The launch comms campaign ran from the 25th of Feb through to the 10th of March and was supported by influencer content through March and April.

We motivated players to get on their feet.

Within a year we tracked:

599 201 723 metres moved

19744778 shots and passes

We attracted a younger audience than standard fitness trackers.

We reached 317M, with the majority of activity in owned channels.

60% of our users are under age 30.

We sustained usage.

A recent snapshot of engagement shows players are still completing challenge after challenge every week – with the majority completing 6+ weekly challenges even a year after launch.

*NB: we aren’t allowed to release sales data and exact user figures.