We all love individuals brilliance, but the impossible only happens when we work together.

Adidas + 10 slogan For Adidas, the 2006 World Cup mobile portal was the most ambitious mobile effort to date. With more than $1 million invested in cross promotion, site design and multimedia content, the World Cup mobile portal was sure to become one of the most successful mobile campaigns ever. Yet, as Mirijam Michels, manager of Mobile Media for adidas International Marketing, reviwed the results at the beginning of March 2006, she doubted wheter the company could ever hope to reach the hoped for one million mobile telephone users. With just over three months until the championship, less than one per cent of the projected number of users had actually visited the site. Although adidas mobile short codes had appeared in television, print and outdoors advertising, no amount of publicity seemed to attract the audiencethat adidas was seeking. COMPANY BACKGROUND Adidas was founded in Germany in 1920 by Adolf Dassler. Following the Second World War, the company became an important supplier of footwear to German soccer teams. Later, the company expanded its footwear line to include fringe sports , such as high jumping, weightlifting and bobsledding, all of which featured prominently in the Olympic national team won the World Cup soccer championship. In the 1990s, the company increasingly outsourced its production to third-party suppliers in order to focus more on marketing. Adidas became a public company in 1995, as global sales of its performance footwear continued to increase and it secured its position as the leading supplier of soccer footwear worldwide. In 1998, adidas began to focus more on the US market, which had been dominated by Nike and Reebok, by sponsoring basketball icons as Kobe Bryant. Within a year, adidas had more than doubled its U.S. market share. The company hoped to continue making inroads into the US basketball market with the 2004 launch of the T-MAC 4, the worlds first laceless basketball shoe. In August 2003, adidas topped off its foray into the United States by acquiring Reebok for an estimated $3,8 billion. With worldwide revenues of $12 billion, the acquisition firmly established adidas as the number two footwear company in the world, after Nike with $14 billion in annual revenues. The companys media division was part of Adidas International B.V., a Netherlands-based subsidiary responsible for the companys total marketing campaigns was the responsibility of regional subsidiaries, which had their own marketing departments. Regional offices localized advertising to suit national markets based on guidelines and principles developed by adidas International Marketing in the Netherlands. The media division was responsible for digital marketing, wich had grown to more than 10 per cent of the companys total marketing budget in recent years. The budget for digital marketing included spending on online advertising, video games and mobile communication, but not dot-com, which had its own budget.

The competition Nike was the global leader in athletic footwear. In the US market, it had a 40% market share, compared to approximately 32% for adidas. Nikes dominance of the basketball segment began with the 1985 signing of basketball star Michael Jordan and introduction of the Air Jordan line of basketball shoes. By 2003, Nikes share of the basketball segment was approximately 60% versus 20% for adidas and 15% for Reebok. In addition to basketball, Nikestop products were running shoes, childrens shoes, cross-training shoes and women shoes. Kike also began to aggressively pursue adidas traditional market of soccer footwear and accessories by sponsoring the Manchester United soccer team in 2002. The company likewise increased advertising spending for important soccer events, such as the World Cup. In 2003, Nike edged out adidas for the first time in European soccer market with 34% market share, compared 30% for adidas. Adidas then retrenched in an effort to re-establish its dominance in soccer. THE 2006 WORLD CUP The World Cup was the most important soccer championship in the world. Similar to the Olympic Games, the World Cup was held every four years and was viewed by more than one billion people. The top 32 teams in the world qualified to compete at venues in a selected country over a period of several weeks. In 2006, the World Cup was hosted by Germany. Adidas was the official partner of the Swiss-based Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body responsible for the World Cup. FIFA was the second largest organization in the world after the United Nations, and since 1930, it had been responsible for most major international soccer tournaments. Although the partnership between adidas and FIFA gave adidas an advantage over its competitors. Nike sought over other ways to establish a presence during the World Cup. In addition to sponsoring several national teams. Nike created an online networking website and its own mobile telephone portal. Nikes campaign centered on the Portuguese slogan joga bonito, in reference to the Nike sponsored Brazilian teams supposed artistry with soccer ball. Brazil had won more world championships than any other country, including the previous World Cup in 2002. In addition, the roster included Ronaldo Assis Moreira, a midfielder more popularly known as Ronaldinho and considered by many to be the best player in the world. Nike supported its campaign with both a mobile portal and website. For its Internet site. Nike entered into a partnership with Google to create an online community. The site had some initial success attracting an audience of ardent soccer players and fans, who helped build the online community with discussion, videos and other user-created content. The Global Marketing Meeting: Defining a Strategy The stated mission of adidas was to dominate the World Cup in its home market of Germany. To that end, it planned to outspend Nike by ratio of two to one. As Adidas began its planning in early 2005, it assigned specific groups to manage each of the marketing platforms. The main aim was to have a seamlessly integrated campaign, with the same look and feel, explained Mirjam Michels, manage of Mobile Media.

This really included everything, from retail, to Internet, to media, above the line and below the line. We always knew that mobile would be an important part of that. In March 2005, the mobile (global) media team attendedthe companys annual Global Marketing Meeting (GMM), where division heads, country managers and representatives from major retailers discussed the companys marketing concepts for the upcoming year. The event was an opportunity to present initial creative concepts and discuss ways to improve on them. Marketing teams would then use the concepts to formulate a final media strategy. At 2005 GMM, the company outlined its objectives for the World Cup Campaign to employees and retail partners: In the long-term, soccer leadership will decide brand leadership. The 2006 FIFA World Cup offers a unique opportunity to capture our global audience through soccer, adidas heartland. Soccer is the battleground both we and Nike have chosen in order to fight for global brand and business leadership. The success of our efforts leading up to and around the event will have a significant impact on our brand. We are determined to remain the leader within the soccer category and where possible even extend the gap to our competitor, using all strength and credibility the brand has within the game and towards a soccer audience. However, soccer today reaches way beyond the actual fans of the game and it touches all spectrums of society. Our campaign will reflect this phenomenon and therefore foster and murture our relationship with all young people interested in sports. Our mission is to unequivocally establish adidas as the leader in soccer in the hearts and minds of the world and to establish our commitment to build and maximize our retail partnerships together. As we consider our activity over the next year and a half, we must not loose sight our long term goal. By choosing soccer as the venue on wich to battle archival Nike, adidas chose to move away from Nikes emphasis on player salaries and flash , and to focus instead on the game and importance of teamwork. +10: Together I Am Strong With the World Cup campaign, adidas decided to emphasize the real truth of soccer, a truth that was based on cooperation. At the center of the campaign was +10, wich referred to the relationship of each player with other 10 teammates. Instead of focusing on individual star players, the campaign would focus on the iimportance of the team. In doing so, adidas hoped the +10 campaign would makesoccer inspirational, meaningful and shared. One advertisement explained that players can only be brilliant with the support of the team, and the team will only succeed wit individual moments of brilliance. According to company research, in the past, adidas had limited succedd differentiating itself from Nike. When advertisements were shown to teenagers, they would reply. Oh, thats cool, but they would often connect the commercial with Nike rather than adidas. With +10, adidas hoped to distinguish itself from competitors as noted in an internal company memo: Kine has always been about the individual, the tricks, and the skills. Its about me: Look how cool I am. Adidas has always been about team and about working together. Its I cant be a good player unless I have a team around me. Amsterdam-based creative agency 180 initially developed the +10 concept. The agency began working with adidas in 1998 and developed a number of award-winning global campaigns, including the Road Lisbon for the 2004 European soccer championship. However, 180 focused mainly on print and television media, and therefore lacked understanding of the unique needs of digital media. That responsibility fell solely on shoulders of the adidas media group in Amsterdam. Although on one hand, this arrangement created more work for the media group, on the other hand, it provided a much greater level of freedom. Anything creative has to be signed off by 180, explained Michels. But because they dont work directly with digital media, we have a little more freedom. Surpassing Star Wars By the time adidas started planning its mobile campaign. Nick Drake, manager of Mobile Media until Michaels succeeded him in January 2006, had already examined a number of applications for delivering mobile marketing content to consumers, including games; text messages; tickers with sports, news and weather information; mobile portals; and downloadable content, such as ring tones and wallpaper. I feel strongly that we need to take an advance position on the market so that we will have the most up-to-date and sophisticated experience available. Drake explained to his team. If current trends hold, by mid-2006 there will be a very large penetration of 2.5G and 3G consumers in Europe, allowing us to deliver the most comprehensive brand experience available for mobile such as Java Tickers and Flash-based mobile portals. Drake was confident that the adidas mobile effort would be capable of surpassing Lucas films star wars, one of the most successful mobile campaigns ever. On April 4, 2005, Lucasfilm had launched its mobile portal in anticipation of the release of the film Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, on May 19, 2005. Lucasfilm partnered with a number of cellular network carrier to provide global coverage and hired THQ Wireless, a mobile entertainment agency, to develop and distribute content, including ring tones, sound effects, games, animated screensavers, wallpapers, character biographies, actor interview and video clips of behind-the-scenes action. Most content cost U$$1,99 per download with the exception of games, wich cost U$$5,99 each. Some wireless carriers also offered limited edition Star Wars phones, which included preloaded content and two tickets to see the movie. Many mobile marketing campaigns were promotionally based efforts involving coupons, discounts or other incentives intended to directly influence product purchases. Film and sport, on the other hand, were viewed as creative categories that emphasized brand-building over transactions. As such, Drake thought the Star Wars campaign could inform the World Cup efforts of adidas. The World Cup is bigger than Star Wars, so we should be able to do even better. Drake told his marketing team. Adidas is as strong a youth brand as any in the market place, and the World Cup promises to be the most widely consumed event in history. Therefore, we shold be able to surpass the current industry benchmark set by Star Wars of 900000 unique users.

Michels, who had been working under Drake at the time, had some initial doubts about Drakes projections. None of this has been backed up by research, and the most successful mobile campaign weve ever launched reached than 100.000 people. She observed. Still, Drake insisted that adidas had two advantages over the Star Wars promotion. First, the World Cup was a global phenomenon with a much wider fan base than any film could hope to have. Second, the content would be provided free of charge to anyone with a properly equipped phone. Most importantly, mobile media was continuing to evolve into an essential element in most peoples lives: The simple hard factes are that 90% of our target audience have mobile phones in Western Europe, and 60% are already regularly using 2.5G technology. Then there is the psychological evidence that Kids form an emotional attachment to their phones, some admitting to crying if they have lost it because they feel unconnected. Obviously it is a hugely important part of their lives. Most people in adidas did not share Drakes optimism. They didnt really understand the role of mobile phones in peoples lives. Explained Michaels. Everyone understand that consumers use mobile, but few really understand what is cool or what can be done, since we have never done a campaign like this before. The advertising agency in particular doesnt understand it, because they hold a more traditional point of view. Drake agreed: The majority of our employees do not have latest handsets, so they are not aware of the kinds of things that are available. Mostly it is a matter of reeducating the company about how mobile technology has change and what it is capable of. Drake approached Rich Prenderville, head of Global Media, to request funding for the project. After demonstrating examples of other successful mobile initiates, Drake told Prevenderville that his teram planned to attract at least 1 million visitors to the World Cup mobile site. Prenderville knew that to attain this level, adidaswould need to achieve record levels of mobile marketing reach and adoption. My concern is that this will require a considerable investment and I want to make sure that it achieves critical mass for the brand Prederville. Prenderville replied. Prenderville saw Drake as an evangelist for mobile media, whose enthusiasm finally convinced him that the plan was viable. Utimately, Prenderville agreed to allocate a portion of the campaigns strategic funds to mobile, bringing the budget to an unprecedent $1,25 million. This will be the icing on the cake for our marketing plan, the type of thing that will generate some buzz. Prenderville added. The hot term in media these days is engagement. Its about how much time people spend with your brand. If you have someone on your website or mobile portal for several minutes, thats tremendous compared to a 30 second ad that you are pushing on TV. Its much broader than CPM and it helps build PR, wich for me is much more important because PR has a stronger influence on consumers. Campaign Phases The + 10 campaign was launched in five stages. The first three, known as the Expose Phase focused on product lauches. STAGE ONE RAN FROM November to December 31, 2005, with the launch of replica World Cup Federation jerseys. The jerseys fostered patriotism centered on national teams in an effort to create awareness about the upcoming championships. The next stage saw the introduction of the +Predator Absolute soccer boot on November 17, 2005. The +Predator Absolute featured an advanced design representing the higher end of the product category and would be worn by leading players during the World Cup, including David Beckham and Zidane. Marketing for the +Predator Absolute focused on retail promotions, print, online and mobile. The third stage saw the introductionof a match quality soccer ball on December 8, 2005. The fourth stage was part of the Explain Phase, wich ran from February 9 to March 31, 2006 and represented the transition from the earlier World Cup-related product launches to the main World Cup events that would take place over summer. The main objective was to explain the concept of +10 using television and other media. Adidas sent professional soccer players to recruit from the general population in Latin America, Europe and Japan. Potential players were advised to register their soccer resums on the company website, after which players with the best resumes were invited to a live selection event. The event culminated in televised games between teams. At the same time, the company launched a new soccer boot called Tunit that was designed to allow wearers to make modifications to improve play for different conditions and player styles. The final stage, wich would run from April to July 2006, was known as the Impossible Team. This stage represented the bulk of adidas advertising and promotion. It featured television commercials on major networks around the world, as well as cinema, outdoors, print, online media and mobile. Mobile Phases The phases product launched provided the media group with an opportunity to introduce new mobile content for each phase. You need to change the content to get kids to come back to the site. Michels noted. You dont want them coming back in a month and seeing the same things. For each of the phases, new content was presented in a subheading on the main menu. During each phase, the media group provided new content to Minick, the Swiss mobile agency and a subsidiary of THQ Wireless, wich update the mobile portal to reflect the various stages of the campaign. However, not all the content designed for traditional media worked well in a mobile environment. Imagine a player running across a field. Explained Michaels. You can see it beautifully on TV, but you cannot see it on mobile. The differences in content delivery created two problems. First, the media group had to adjust th material to make it suitable for digital and mobile platforms. Michels believed that the process of adjusting the material was often a less efficient use of resources than creating new content specifically for mobile. Second, the creation of new material would have a provided users with fresh and original content. In contrast, Michael felt that recycled material was less innovative, less exciting and less attractive: One thing I have learned is that tradional agencies dont understand the unique requirements of mobile. They dont know what kids want. There wasnt anything that would make people say, Oh cool, I havent seen this anywhere. This is really exclusive stuff. Its all about what we call social currency. Kids can talk endlessly about the players them look cool. One kid has some new videos on his phone, so the other kids come over to see it after school.

In many cases, it is really simple. For example, when you are shooting photos, you need close-ups of people. For audio, it needs to be in the local language because subtitles are too small to read. On TV, you can put subtitles, but cant on mobile. As a result, local language content is really important. The mobile component of the +10 campaign was officially launched on October 10, 2005. To generate awareness among soccer fans, it provided content such as wallpaper and videos. Videos featured soccer stars explaining the concept of +10 and how they would set about choosing players for their teams. Except for the United States and China, where uniquely localized material was developed, content for the mobile portal was created and distributed solely by the adidas media group. Although this strategy helped to create a more consistent product it also limited the development of content that met distinctive needs of local fans, which concerned Michels. I think it is really powerful to have players talk to you on your mobile in the local language. Its something really cool to show to your friends. Mobile could have also supported local initiatives such as retail events and local product launches. Michels also believed that local markets remained aloof because they had not committed any funds to the campaign. If you dont make markets pay, they generally dont show interest as they are not responsible for the campaigns soccer. As soon as some of their own investiment is at stake, they make sure that campaign performs. During the last phase of the campaign, adidas planned to add a free applet to the mobile portal that provided users with real time soccer scores for World Cup matches. In previous campaigns, adidas charged consumers a subscription free to access soccer score. During the Euro 2004 soccer championships, for example, users could download an applet to 2.5G phones using an advertised code at a cost of E5,00 for two months use, which was charged directly to the userss monthly mobile phone bill. The applet then connected with a third-party information provider that adidas had contracted to feed scores and other informstion to users for a flat fee. Any earnings generated from subscription fees also went to the information provider not to adidas. For the World Cup, adidas chose to dispense fees. Whether or not we should charge consumers has always been a big question for us. Explained Michels. The final decision was no., because we felt it was a marketing tool and it is not right to charge the consumer. Kids are used to paying for everything. You just dont get mobile content for free. We are gibing averything away for free, wallpapers, videos, and real-time scores. And it is really exclusive and authentic atuff. Like videos of Beckham. Cross promotion Unlike previous mobile efforts, which had been promoted almost exclusively online, the World Cup campaign was cross-promoted through outdoor, print and television advertising. Adidas purchased short codes in each region participating in the mobile promotion, which were then printed at the bottom of billboards and print ads. It was pretty small, but it was noticeable. Explained Michels. We tried to get the ads to show some consumer benefits, because consumers have to make an effort to enter the text message. Every market afreed and it all went fine. We had a lot invested in print and we assumed that that would give mobile a pretty big push. Unfortunately, we didnt see any results. You need to look at this way. Kids are mobile savvy. They think, This is going to cost me something, so what am I going to get in return? If we invest in short codes, consumers need to know what they are getting. There needs to be some sort of value exchange. If they are not being promised something, they are not going to enter the short code at their own cost. They are also constantly bombarded with offesrs from other companies, most of wich offer nothing better than some annoying ring tone. Adidas was very subtle and it didnt work for us. By January 2006, the mobile portal attracted fewer than 2000 visitors. Still, Michaels tried to remain optimistic as she reassured her superiors that the companys targets would be reached. However, in the back of her mind alarm bells were going off as she became increasingly worried that the campaign might fall short of expectations. Michels discussed her concerns with her counterparts at 180, who suggested that she include the short codes on television spots. The television component of the +10 Explain phase feature well-known soccer players who recruit 10 ordinary men to join an ad hoc team. The commercials were primarily shown on MTV, which it saw as a provider of youth credibility and expertise. Adidas originally planned to show the short codes at the end of each spot, but ran into regulatory hurdles. In most marketers, mobile advertisers were required to display a lengthy declaration after a short code explaining the terms and conditions of the offer.Because such a declaration would substantially interfere with the impact of the commercial spots, adidas agreed to show the short codes only in markets that not require a terms-and-conditions statement. Since MTVs broadcasts focused on regional markets, the regulations of one country applied to all countries within the broadcast region. Therefore, short codes could not be broadcast in the United Kingdom, because they did not comply with German regulations. Michels had originally thought that television would be great: however, in the end the short codes were only broadcast in Spain and Italy, and even in those markets, the results were disappointing. By the end of February, the mobile site had attracted only 3000 visitors. Although Michels believed more strongly than ever that the mobile component would fall well short of initial projections, she still hoped for a miracle.