Adidas has moved on from iris Worldwide’s There will be Haters. Its players no longer even acknowledge the taunts and criticisms because, if you “listen to the noise, you’ll never create anything special on the pitch. If you want to be first, never follow the blah. Because First Never Follows.”
And in keeping with the intention of doing sport brand advertising differently, 72andSunny Amsterdam, has created a sports video, narrated in rap and full of graphics that visualise the “blah blah blah” – the gossip and predictions made by fans and the media during football pre-season – that its top players never follow.
The new ad was directed by Somesuch’s Rollo Jackson and keeps football fans’ attention riveted with both its typography overlays (replacing headlines and rumours) and its juxtaposition of various visual styles, that include anime and video game…while the Adidas players ignore the blah and get on with their games. It opens with a (perhaps unintentional?) reference to the earlier There Will Be Haters campaign – Pogba reminds viewers, “Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.”
Players from the Adidas’ six top teams – Real Madrid, FC Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea, Juventus and AC Milan – feature. Paul Pogba and Gareth Bale (two of the handful of players featured in the May-June branded content series), join Manuel Neuer, Diego Costa, James Rodriguez, Diego Costa and Miralem Pjanic as well as managers, Zinedine Zidane and Jose Mourinho.
The campaign began in May with a series of branded content pieces that focus on the attributes that make each of the Adidas athletes always come first. Yes, this has been done before, but not narrated by an intensely eager young football fan.
Credits:
Agency: 72andSunny Amsterdam
Executive creative directors: Carlo Cavallone & Stuart Harkness
Creative directors: Simon Schmitt &Emiliano Trierveiler
Writer: Damian Isaak
Strategy directors: Danny Feeney & Michael Robert
Director of communications strategy: Simon Summerscales
Managing director: Nic Owen
Group brand director: Jack Allen
Senior brand manager: Stephane Fevrier
Director of business affairs: Madelon Pol
Senior business affairs: Sabina Gorini
Director of production: Stephanie Oakley
Film producers: Ralph de Haan, Peter Williams & Helena Yueh