Adidas has a long history as an Olympic sponsor dating back to 1928. As the official sportswear partner of the 2012 London Olympics, Adidas' objectives were to associate their brand with Team Great Britain, engage and excite 14-19 year olds in the UK, and deliver a return on investment. Their strategy included designing innovative athlete kits with Stella McCartney, a national "Take the Stage" campaign featuring celebrities like David Beckham, and leveraging social media with videos and hashtags. This large-scale promotional activation was expensive but proved successful, driving traffic to their website and generating hundreds of millions of video views, demonstrating that well-planned marketing can create meaningful engagement.

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How Adidas won the game
Summary
Adidas has a rich Olympic heritage stretching all the way back to 1928 when Adidas’ running shoes
debuted. As a partner of the London 2012 Olympics, Adidas engaged its target consumers and set forth
clearly defined objectives in order to create huge amounts of support for Team Great Britain before,
during and after the Games.
Key Challenges
Adidas’ range of sports equipment has been seen at every Olympic Games and every British medal-
winning athlete at the last 8 Olympic Games wore Adidas products. Adidas were thus the logical choice
as a partner for Team Great Britain and the London 2012 Olympics. The challenge ahead of Adidas was
to inspire and engage its young target audience (aged 14-19) in an innovative manner across the UK and
the globe with an appropriate sports marketing mix.
Strategy and Solution
Adidas’market-oriented strategy, coupled with product and marketing innovation, has played a key role
in their success. London represented a key market for Adidas as it set trends across the country and by
partnering with the London 2012 Olympics they had a readymade platform to target not just a national,
but a global audience. Their sponsorship deal was the broadest set of sportswear rights in Olympic
history. It became the Official Sportswear Partner of the London Games and the exclusive licensee of all
branded (Adidas + London 2012) and event branded (London 2012 only) clothing.
After acquiring these rights, Adidas focused on their key marketing objectives:
To ensure a clear association as Sportswear Partner of London 2012, Team Great Britain and
Paralympics Great Britain.
To engage and excite 14-19 year olds and become the preferred sportswear brand in the UK.
To deliver a Licensed Product Return on Investment (ROI)
To become the most talked about sports brand in 2012.
The athletes’ kit allowed Adidas to be innovative and excite the target audience while still meeting
commercial sales targets. Market research undertaken by Adidas showed the youth audience wanted
something ‘untraditionally British’. Stella McCartney created a deconstructed union flag design keeping
their findings in mind. Preparations and marketing of the kit began 2 ½ years in advance, with
photoshoots of the athletes in their Team Great Britain gear used to create buzz.
With more than 50 London 2012 sponsors, Adidas needed to stand differentiated and they looked to
create national support through its ‘Take the Stage’ campaign.

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Mass audiences are becoming harder to reach through advertising, and so Adidas employed Above-The-
Line and Below-The-Line activities to reach out to its audience. They used a combination of carefully
planned product placement and athletes, including David Beckham. TV adverts featuring athletes, such
as Jessica Ennis and Tom Daley, were aired in which they spoke of their innermost goals, fears and
thoughts, a strikingly different approach that stood out.
Furthermore, the activation of traditional media with innovative use of social and digital channels on a
never-before-seen scale was very successful. TV adverts drove consumers to a website where they could
get a chance to meet their idols. Through ‘Project 32’, Adidas rewarded 32 talented youngsters with the
chance to meet their idols, allowing them to ‘Take the Stage’.
On Twitter #takethestage became a summer trend and Videos on YouTube created hundreds of millions
of views, including a video of Team GB athletes singing along to Queen’s ‘Don’t stop me now’.
Additionally, a large photo booth was set up allowing the public to show their support and videos of
reactions to David Beckham’s surprise appearance racked up 3.2 million views, plus international TV
coverage.
Outcome
All of this promotional activity was very expensive and demonstrating ROI was vital. As exclusive
licensee of all branded and event branded apparel, Adidas’ constant monitoring and measurement of
their campaigns demonstrated how their investment was justified. The table below demonstrates the
significant return achieved through this campaign and how Adidas successfully achieved its marketing
objectives.
Sponsorship deals such as Adidas’ with the 2012 London Olympics are very expensive, but with well
planned marketing strategies with clearly defined objectives meaningful engagement with consumers
can be created. Through their campaign, Adidas successfully created a huge wave of support for Team
GB before, during and after the Games.

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Addidas Marketing Strategy Infographics