Adidas launched its debut tennis ecology initiative within its umbrella ‘Play For The Oceans’ global programme in harness with ocean ecology organisation Parley.
Rolling out on 4 January, this new campaign collaboration between Adidas Tennis x Parley revolves around the first collection for the tennis court created entirely from reclaimed or intercepted ocean plastic.
The integrated campaign features Adidas tennis endorsers and other athlete ambassadors swinging recycled Parley plastic sportswear at the first major global sports event of 2019 – the Australian Open.
The multi-media marketing drive was launched to leverage peaking tennis interest around the 2019 Australian Open and is fronted by tennis stars Alex Zverev (the world’s No 4 ranked men’s player) and defending champion Caroline Wozniacki.
It also features fellow Adidas spokespeople Ian Thorpe (the legendary Australian swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medal winner) and Australian model Mimi Elashiry.
Ahead of the January 14 start of the Australian Open, the sportswear giant unveiled the Adidas Parley Tennis Collection: the world’s first tennis apparel made entirely from Parley reclaimed or intercepted ocean plastic.
Playing for a bigger cause. @AngeliqueKerber in the new adidas x @parleyxxx collection.
Available now on: https://t.co/1JNa7KZb7X
–#HereToCreate #adidasParley #tennis #adidas pic.twitter.com/jF0YPUcKdd— adidas tennis (@adidastennis) January 6, 2019
Dominic Thiem makes a statement on the big stage with the new adidas x @parleyxxx collection.
Available now on: https://t.co/1JNa7KZb7X
–#HereToCreate #adidasParley #tennis #adidasTennis pic.twitter.com/ENC5DvMh7O— adidas tennis (@adidastennis) January 5, 2019
The campaign is spearheaded by a hero film starring the team of Adidas ambassadors.
The film sees Zverey state: “We all relay on the oceans for the air we breathe, but today the oceans are at risk.”
While marine biologist Coralie Balmy adds “The ocean is suffocating and we need to work together to end the problem,” and Ian Thorpe explains that “Every year, more than eight million tons of waste go into the oceans, and we are the ones responsible for putting it there.”
The spot ends with Zverev asking: “But what if we could take this problem and turn it into something positive. Transform the waste into something that could change the future of sports forever No oceans. No air. No life.From threat into thread. Play for the oceans”.
The commercial comes in a 1 minute 30-second version
and a shorter spot too.
“We’re taking wasteful plastic and giving it a new purpose,” says Zverev.
As well as the video, the initiative was promoted with a photo shoot featuring defending champion Caroline Wozniacki wearing separates from the range all made from recycled waste.
To celebrate the launch of the first Adidas Tennis x Parley For The Oceans collection leveraging the Australian Open 2019, the initiative’s marketers added an experiential strand to its campaign by turning the iconic Bondi Icebergs Pool in Sydney into a tennis court.
Creators, including some of the world’s elite tennis stars and top athletes gathered at the court/pool event and played some games for the cause.
Today we played for a bigger cause. Today we played for the oceans@parleyxxx @AnaIvanovic @IanThorpe @EllysePerry @therealbeauryan @Daniel_DC_Conn @mimielashiry @Josh_Mansour @JesintaCampbell
–#HereToCreate #adidasParley #tennis #adidasTennis pic.twitter.com/UIO0x89G5d— adidas tennis (@adidastennis) January 10, 2019
Our creators will unite to Play For The Oceans at Bondi Icebergs Pool, Sydney.
January 10, 2019
9am – 10am@parleyxxx#adidasParley pic.twitter.com/upSr9BZTus— adidas tennis (@adidastennis) January 9, 2019
After the campaign ends, the court will be donated to a local school for continued use.
“We were looking for a way to bring to life the story of our Parley partnership whilst launching our first Parley tennis range to the world. We wanted to visually represent the beauty of the oceans, the threat they are currently facing, and the solution that adidas and Parley are working towards. We felt the backdrop of the iconic Bondi Beach, with the symbolic empty pool (that Iceberg’s empty every Thursday), and then the unveiling of our footwear and apparel range made from 100% marine ocean plastic, was a perfect way to tell this story,” explained Senior Manager of Brand Activation for Adidas Pacific Bec Ballard.
“The Parley partnership is incredibly important to the adidas Brand globally, and it resonates strongly with our Australian consumers. Our Parley partnership and associated products aim to protect our oceans for generations to come. This purpose aligns strongly with the Australian beach culture,” continued Ballard.
“As a brand, we have the core belief that ‘Through sport, we have the power to change lives’. Donating the tennis court to a primary school in Western Sydney really rounded out the activation. We wanted to give the court a purpose beyond the activation; encouraging kids to be active was the ideal solution.”
“The activation itself had multiple layers of complexity. When dealing with a natural environment we had to allow for many uncontrollables: the tides, the swell, and the weather. We had to be incredibly well planned, and operate with a flexible mindset. The pool is drained weekly for cleaning, so we took the small window of opportunity while the pool was empty.”
“We were given access to the empty pool at 3 am, we had to clean it, build the court, install all the signage and be ready for the event at 9 am. We had waves crashing over the side, rain, and were working in the dark! The event kicked off at 9 am and concluded by 10 am. The court had been dismantled and removed from the bottom of the pool by 10.30am. By mid-afternoon, the pool had been filled naturally by the ocean, and people were once again swimming laps.”
Comment:
In 2017 Adidas sold one million Parley for the Oceans shoes alone and this campaign shows that the German based sportswear giant remains committed to continuing this impressive programme through 2018.
When we think of the sun-kissed summer staged Australian Open, we also think of the ocean, sun, beaches and elite tennis stars playing in intense head.
While last year’s Adidas’ Melbourne collection was inspired by beachwear, this year it’s focus is on tennis, recycling and raising awareness about the plastic pollution in our precious waters.
Adidas is a founding member of the Parley for the Oceans organisation and has already created other Parley sportswear, including workout and running trousers, jackets, hoodies and shoes, as well as team-specific kit.
Stand out events within the ongoing global programme include June 2018’s Adidas hosted ‘Run For The Oceans 2018;: a four-week-long global running initiative in 13 cities, including Barcelona, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris and Shanghai.
During the event, which raised $1m, runners covered a total distance of more than 7.7 million miles as they collectively harnessed the power of sport to generate awareness for the cause (see case study).
Other recent Adidas/Parley projects and campaigns range from a tie-up with Real Madrid and EA Sports (see case study), plus work with other leading football clubs including Bayern Munich and Manchester United (see case study) and with cliff diver Anna Bader (see case study).
Parley For The Oceans is a group of creators, thinkers and leaders dedicated to cleaning the environment and to finding new ways to recycle plastics to keep them from entering the oceans.
The organisation’s objective is to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and to collaborate and lead on a range of projects and programmes, often sport and sportswear related, that aim to bring an end to the destruction of the earth’s oceans.
Ocean health and the plastics problem was one of the key subject trends for sports marketing in 2018 – with other notable campaigns ranging from Team Sky and Ocean Rescue’s #PassOnPlastic (see case study) and the World Surf League’s #WSLPure –
and this trend has already continued into 2019.
Links:
Adidas Tennis
https://www.adidas.co.uk/tennis
Adidas
https://www.youtube.com/user/adidas
https://www.instagram.com/adidas/
Parley:
http://www.parley.tv/#fortheoceans
https://www.instagram.com/parley.tv/
https://www.facebook.com/Parleyfortheoceans
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