ABOUT

With iris newly appointed as adidas Football’s Lead Global Agency, we dared adidas to kick convention and embrace the modern social engagement around football in a way no other brand had done before.

adidas is the traditional football brand, supplying boots and kit for over 60 years. However the key audience of 17 year old consumers was being seduced by newer, seemingly more fun, competitors.

We reframed the brand’s role from kit maker to Supplier of Confidence. Players need full confidence to play at their best, and abuse from opposing fans and players chips away at that. Our answer? To embrace the abuse. To turn the negative comments into motivation. To recognise that the hate was actually a sign that you were doing something right.

#THEREWILLBEHATERS is a bulletproof campaign that actively encourages ‘hate’. A brutally simple and unexpectedly honest film calls out the trolls before they’ve even said a word. Supported by a real-time social response campaign, the brand responded to consumer’s posts both positive and negative.

RESULTS
- 45M film views (KPI was 10M over 3 months)
- 9M engagements
- Cannes Integrated Cyber Lion
- 5 Campaign BIG Awards
- Gold Clio Sport Award
- Silver APG Award
- 65% increase in traffic to product website