With rival Under Armour going all-in on its “Book of Will” campaign, Adidas is throwing its weight behind a new campaign of its own, courtesy of 180LA.
Entitled “Sport15,” the campaign launches with a 60-second spot called “Take It,” celebrating the mental toughness exhibited by professional athletes of all stripes. “The last goal doesn’t matter,” begins the voiceover, “The last victory, already forgotten.” Going on to feature footage from many star athletes, including DeMarco Murray, Derrick Rose, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez (who really hopes a certain bite is forgotten) the ad elaborates on this philosophy, making it the backbone of the new campaign. The spot will make its debut tomorrow during coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend in New York.
“As a brand that has a legacy with sports more than anybody historically, and across all sports, it’s something that we see. It’s something we wanted to start communicating to our audience,” Simon Atkins, vice president of brand activation at Adidas, explained in Adweek, adding that the best athletes have the “ability to use all of their experiences—good, bad or indifferent—to empower them for the future.”
According to Atkins, “Book of Will” will be the brand’s largest-ever ad spend in the U.S. and its biggest brand campaign since “All In or Nothing” in 2011. It seems that with something of an ad war with rival Under Armour underway, the brand is taking its strategy from the title of that campaign, attempting to go all out to regain ground lost to Under Armour (who overtook Adidas as runner-up to Nike in the athletic apparel market).
“What you’re seeing is Adidas rewriting our playbook about how we want to express our brand, week in, week out,” Atkins said.