Last weekend during the Africa Cup of Nations, millions eyes were on Egypt – and adidas owned the moment without even sponsoring the team.
While adidas was not an official tournament sponsor, Havas leaned into the brand’s long-standing partnership with Mohamed Salah, creating content that embedded itself in the cultural moment. That content has generated 6.1 million organic views, 453K interactions and 37K new followers so far.
With a short filming window in the UK, months ago, adidas captured a series of simple, adaptable content moments with Salah, created in Egyptian dialect and designed to be released at key points throughout the tournament.Ahead of Egypt’s matches, adidas released a playful tongue-twister video featuring Salah, quickly gaining traction with fans and setting the tone for what followed. When Salah scored during the quarterfinal, adidas released a pre-recorded message from the player moments later, seamlessly becoming part of the celebration. The content resonated as a fan moment first and shared widely. It wasn’t seen as advertising.
The result was an organic surge in engagement, reinforcing adidas’ belief that meaningful connection comes from showing up authentically, speaking the language of fans and celebrating moments with them, not around them.
