Adidas' 11-Nation Euro 2016 Kit Launch Led By Germany's 'Our Pitch Our Rules'

November saw Adidas roll out a set of phased, multi-country new kit release marketing for its national partners competing at Euro 2016 culminating with the launch of a new ad campaign for its flagship football partner (and company home nation) Germany called ‘Our Pitch, Our Rules’.

The new German kit was initially teased (along with the shirts for Belgium, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Bosnia & Herzegovina) via a series of tweets on 9 November in a phased November shirt launch roll-out.

This included new kits for Belgium,

Presenting our new @adidasfootball shirt. @BelRedDevils are ready to #bethedifference #tousenFrance pic.twitter.com/NmQxeAex0Z

— Axel Witsel (@axelwitsel28) November 9, 2015

Bosnia & Herzegovina,

The Bosnia and Herzegovina home kit. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/E42ANqe4lL

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 9, 2015

Denmark and Sweden,

Fighting for a place in #EURO2016. The Denmark and Sweden home kits. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/aSyBFt04Xl

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 9, 2015

Northern Ireland,

The @OfficialIrishFA home kit. #BeTheDifference #EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/uiyK8quRrE

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 9, 2015

Russia,

The new @TeamRussia home kit. Ready for #EURO2016. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/NuET1UNlQN

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 10, 2015

Spain,

The defending champions are coming. Who wants it, #EURO2016? Introducing the @SeFutbol home kit. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/1vXfALEzqh

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 10, 2015

and Wales.

The @FAWales home kit. Ready for #EURO2016. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/p3oPWuDhpf

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 11, 2015

All leveraging the ‘200 days to go’ countdown to the tournament kick-off in France on 10 June.

This coincided with a live launch event at Berlin’s Urban football centre ‘The Base’ with rapper Carlo Waibel (aka Cro) joined on stage by players Lukas Podolski and Emre Can in full home kit.

The Adidas programme was followed the next day with player ambassador led ‘new kit’ social content – such as Casillas promoting the new Spain kit

Nueva equipación, nuevos retos. Preparados para defender lo nuestro. ¿La quieres? #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/NQdVd705mI

— Iker Casillas (@CasillasWorld) November 10, 2015

and even the roll out of a new video from Team Messi of the Argentine juggling an orange (despite Messi not being eligible to compete at the Euros) to continue the brand’s #BeTheDifference content-led social engagement.

On 11 November the Wales kit was unveiled and on the following day an Adidas event in Paris saw the German squad promote its new reversible away kit.

At the same event Zinedine Zidane revealed the official Beau Jeu Euro 2016 ball to the live audience and to his 3.3 million Instagram followers.

A photo posted by zidane (@zidane) on Nov 12, 2015 at 12:58am PST

https://www.instagram.com/p/9-plvbK1O0/?taken-by=zidane

Crafted for beautiful play on Europe's biggest stage. Beau Jeu, the official #EURO2016 match ball. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/155Zc2jF1N

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 12, 2015

On the same day Germany’s Euro 2016 Die Mannschaft kit campaign was spearheaded by a 60-second video (posted on 12 November) that stars several players including Manuel Neuer, Mesut Özil, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Müller.

It focuses on the dominance of the current World Cup winners with a narrator saying: ‘We control the play, the score and the spotlight. This white line is what separates you and world champions, a whole nation of us’.

The ‘Our Pitch, Our Rules’ spot on Adidas Football YouTube channel was viewed by more than 33,000 fans in its first 24 hours.

Our pitch. Our rules. @DFB_Team_EN hit the pitch for the first time tonight in their new home kit. #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/nuSso6Eemn

— adidasfootball (@adidasfootball) November 13, 2015

Then Spain, Germany, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Wales and Bosnia all debuted their new kits during international fixtures on 13 November.

(The France v Germany game notoriously was part of the Paris terrorism tragedy).

The new German kit is a clean and simple white top and black shorts – thus creating something of a vintage look.

The white top features a new positioning for the iconic three stripes with them running down the lower sides of the top as opposed to the upper sleeves.

All the executions and con tent pieces in the campaign, created by Iris Worldwide, carry the global, umbrella adidas tagline #BeTheDifference.

Comment

This seems like a clever, combined strategy from Adidas to use the countdown, its impressive partnership portfolio and global umbrella branding and reach to launch multiple kits.

After all, this Euro 2016 campaign is part of the apparel giant’s wider umbrella objective – Adidas Football’s mission is to ‘push the limits of the game forward, driving the performances’ of its star endorsers such as Messi, Bale and Rodríguez, as well as Sunday League players around the world.

In addition to the nations already mentioned, the Adidas partner club team portfolio includes Chelsea, Manchester United, FC Bayern München, AC Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, FC Basel 1893, FC Kobenhaven, and FC Schalke 04.

Adidas has a long heritage with the tournament and is one of 10 top-level sponsors of Euro 2016 (alongside Carlsberg, Continental, Coca-Cola, Hyundai/Kia, McDonald’s, Orange and SOCAR)

‘The history of Adidas as a strong partner of UEFA goes back more than three decades and will continue to be an important pillar in our strategy to expand our global market leadership in football in the future,’ explains Adidas Group CEO Herbert Hainer.

With 8.5 billion projected to watch Euro 2016 event on TV, Adidas will hope to benefit from its national team partnership programme which sees it supply kits to 11 of the 24 participating.

The multiple Euroe 2016 kit launches came after some public and criticism of Adidas after it didn’t not join other major FIFA partners and sponsors in calling for the departure of FIFA President Sepp Blatter during the recent FIFA scandal.

Despite this, at the launch press conference, Adidas boss Herbert Hainer claimed that its strong soccer sales showed FIFA’s problems had not negatively affected the Adidas brand.

Links

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