Adidas leveraged its marketing rights with UEFA with a launch campaign for the tournament matchball – the Tango 12.
Vincent Del Bosque, manager of holders Spain, unveiled a giant version of the new ball at a ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.
The launch also included a new web video (which has already gained almost 100,000 YouTube views) exploring the inspiration and design of the ball. Further promotion took places across the brand’s digital platforms, including its football website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Using the strapline ‘Inspired by tradition, made for today’s game’, the new ball features a series of triangular panels that are thermally bonded together to ensure a “true, stable flight path. Covering each panel of the ball is a grip texture which supports boot to ball contact and enhances ball control.
Included in the design are coloured outlines inspired by the flags of host nations Poland and Ukraine. Also, etched in to the ball are tree bespoke graphics that celebrate the decorative art of paper cutting , a tradition in the rural areas of both countries and a link to the key characteristics of football – unity, rivalry and passion.
As official match ball supplier of all UEFA competitions, the Tango 12 will be the ball used by all nations in the Euro 2012 competition in Poland and Ukraine.
The first version of the Tango was released during World Cup 1978 in Argentina and since then new versions have appeared for the World Cups in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998, as well as the Euros in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 2000.
As the Official Sponsor, Supplier and Licensee of UEFA Euro 2012 adidas is following what is internally described as a ‘three-pillar-strategy’.
The brand is present on three sponsorship levels of the tournament:
1: As official sponsor adidas provides the ball and has visibility inside the stadium and all event venues and outfist all referees, officials and volunteers of the tournament.
2: Adidas backs more teams than other brand and is the official kit provider for six of the 16 teams that qualified (Spain, Ukraine, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Russia).
3: Adidas sponsors many of the star players in the tournament who will act as brand ambassadors (including Spain’s Xavi Hernández and David Villa, Germany’s Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer. The Netherland’s Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, France’s Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema, Czech Republic’s Peter Cech, England’s Frank Lampard, Portugal’s Nani, Poland’s Ireneusz Jelen, Maciej Iwanski and Ukraine’s Artem Milevskiy and Anatoli Tymoshchuk)
The brand will use these players to promote its products – particularly the adizero F50 powered by miCoach which looks set to form the ccore of the brand’s Euro 22012 social media work.
Comment:
Matchballs are under more intense analyse than ever after the debate surrounding the 2010 World Cup Jabulani ball (which was criticised for its lack of accuracy).
This looks certain to generate a significant volume of PR, cyber buzz and earned media for the brand. Whether this will be positive coverage, of course, remains to be seen.
‘We take every criticism seriously. We have learned,” said adidas boss Hainer. ‘This ball has more stability than any other ball. The matte finish gives more grip to the ball, which players like. The Tango 12 is a combination of many years of football tradition coupled with extensive player and lab testing to make it the most tested ball adidas has ever produced.’
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