2012 was all about the Olympics, and among the sponsors there could only be one winner as the sports brand’s activity repeatedly struck gold.
Adidas, who has its Northern European Head Quarters in Hazel Grove, Stockport, became part of history this summer. Britain’s most successful Olympics athletes in 104 years had Adidas written all over them as the German sportswear company’s logo became part of the iconography of the London 2012 Games.
The brand, a tier-one sponsor that paid £100 million for the privilege, was the most-talked-about during the Games. And it achieved this with the broadest, most-hard-working marketing of the event.
Enlisting a world-renowned British fashion designer to create the Team GB kit was one of the brand’s first coups; Stella McCartney’s involvement helped propel PR before the Games. The “take the stage” campaign, which went way beyond the ubiquitous athlete-studded billboards and TV spots, kept the momentum going throughout.
And the brand didn’t limit its activity to the stars of the show. In the run-up to the Games, it invited ordinary young people from each of London’s boroughs to participate in online documentaries, telling their unique stories. Adidas also installed multi-sport outdoor venues across the UK, called “adizones”, to encourage people to participate in sport.
Adidas looked like it was having as much fun as the rest of us during London 2012, with events such as a star-studded Olympics party featuring a performance by The Stone Roses. There was also an Adidas photo booth where off-duty athletes and the general public could strike a pose dressed in the brand’s gear, providing sought-after content for an Olympic-obsessed media. In a clever twist, the brand got David Beckham to walk in on unsuspecting members of the public in the booth, with the footage of the surprise encounters achieving 3.2 million views on YouTube.
Read the full story at Brand Republic