To promote its latest X SPEEDPORTAL, adidas teamed up with US animated cartoon stars Rick and Morty to promote the football boot launch through a global campaign.
The German sportswear giant’s campaign rolled out from 19 July and in addition to a strong line-up of player ambassadors including Liverpool’s Liverpool player Mohammed Salah, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, PSG’s Lionel Messi and Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema also features Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim adult segment comic characters Rick and Morty.
The campaign was created by Dutch agency TBWA\NEBOKO with production from Adult Swim And Green Portal Productions, Llc and VFX by Post Panic.
It was spearheaded by a hero spot called ‘Rick and Morty + adidas X Speedportal: The Adventure’ which goes through an ‘intergalactic portal to multidimensional speed’ and sees Morty pull on a pair of X Speedportals to try and win the International Unlicensed Cup and, after the final whistle, the boots find their way to the present day earth reality for the rest of the campaign.
The campaign promotes the boots as being ‘faster in all dimensions’ and seeks to drive viewers online (https://www.adidas.com/x) to find out more with a list building contest to win a pair of unique X Speedportal Rick and Morty customized boots at https://go.adidas.com/ihha/social2.
The campaign launched globally across Adidas, Adidas football and Adult Swim’s YouTube channels and other social platforms, with cutdowns also shared across paid digital and social with executions linked through the #Xspeedportal, #FasterInAllDimensions, #RickAndMorty and #AdultSwim hashtags.
Adidas Global Director Of Brand Communication, Communities & Culture Gonzaolo Calvo commented: “Consumers told us two things very clearly when we were building this campaign: one was that football is getting faster, but the other was that they felt there was room for sports brands to reflect the fun in the game. With these things in mind, we were confident that, collectively, this was a real chance to push the limits. To footballers of all levels, our X franchise has come to be synonymous with speed, but one thing we know is that speed is not what it used to be. It’s not so linear and incorporates things like quick thinking and fast reactions. With that in mind we didn’t just want to make another football campaign around speed, in the traditional sense of the word.”
“It’s one of these campaigns where you throw something at the wall early on, thinking it is going to get a few laughs and fall off, but it sticks,” commented TBWA\NEBOKO Copywriter Toby Castle-Smith. “But a few months later (and with the trust and support of our partners at adidas Football) we’re on weekly calls with the wonderful people at Adult Swim, and it all starts to come to life.”
“It was always important to us that the narrative weaved throughout the entire campaign,” continued TBWA\NEBOKO Art Director Jeremy Pedro. “As big fans of cinematic universes, no detail was too small when it came to connecting the dots. Every piece of content serves its own purpose, but when combined tells a much bigger story, from start to finish.”
The campaign was briefed in by and created for an Adidas marketing team which included Head Of Global Brand Marketing Football Matt Davidson, Global Director Brand Communication, Communities & Culture Gonzalo Calvo, Senior Global Brand Communications Manager Football Jara Velilla, Manager Brand Communication Football Nikolai Ehrentraut, Senior Media Producer Penny Pijnenburg, Senior Producer James Pinnington and Creative Shoot Producer Greta Bridekirk by a group at TBWA\NEBOKO which included Toby Castle-Smith and Jeremy Pedro.
Film production was handled by Adult Swim And Green Portal Productions, with Directors Adeus and Line Producers 24/7 Sports, Sugar Free TV & AprilMay London. VFX was run through Post Panic, the photographers were Carles Carabí and Olly Burn, with post production visuals created by Loupe&Co and sound by Audentity.
Grading and online work was handled by De Grot, the media agency was Mediacom and the retail agency was Attitude.
Comment
The lead spot is slightly confusing, but, in terms of being a departure from the usual football boot campaign it’s likely to cut through the clutter.
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