ABOUT

Creating with the creators. A new breed of marketing for a new breed of football boot.

adidas adopt an open source strategy: grow share of market through share of trend and share of mind. Why? Because they recognise that traditional marketing won’t reach audiences that don’t consume traditional media. adidas Glitch is a new breed of football boot which sits at the heart of the strategy. Developed in collaboration with adidas ‘football creators’, it has interchangeable inner and outer skins that can be switched up to suit your mood.

Traditional marketing won’t reach audiences that don’t consume traditional media.
 
To suit adidas audiences’ lifestyles, Glitch isn’t available on the High Street, only via the app. But whilst thousands were downloading the app, they weren’t all buying the boots. We felt we could solve the problem by placing the app at the heart of the Glitch community; by loading it with fresh reasons to engage, we gave new incentive to buy the boots.

Fresh reasons to engage. New incentives to buy.
 
We invited adidas football creators to help us co-create a new Glitch experience. But when we got them in a room together, something unexpected happened… they couldn’t agree. Each creator had a different perspective with their own take on footballing style, tekkers and attitude. There were plenty of creative differences, but no right or wrong. Just nine creators, creating. So, we went along with it and shaped an entire campaign around a three-way philosophical split which came to life through three self-named cliques: Focus, Riiisk and The Pack.
 
We co-wrote, co-shot and co-designed the content, including a unique visual identity for each clique. We gave the creators the keys to the adidas marketing machine and allowed them to go social, recruiting peers to join their cliques and attend an exclusive face-off event.
 
Competition was fierce, but it was the shared passion for football that brought the group together and lit up the night.

This was co-creation at its best. Their content was ours and ours was theirs.
 
Through Glitch Cliques, we co-created a memorable brand experience, not an advertising message, resulting in hundreds of new followers to GlitchFam and a new injection of exclusivity and hype around Glitch: a brand created by the football community for the football community.