Entities associated with the UFC, boxing, and other sports related to mixed martial arts should take a close look at a branding tactic that adidas recently displayed in a Chinese subway. adidas generated awareness and excitement amongst subway passengers by turning several giant poles in the subway station into giant punching bags.
This marketing stunt would work extremely well to promote premier UFC (and other MMA) events in high-traffic locations and stadiums (wrapping poles in the concourse to promote upcoming events) worldwide.
adidas celebrated the grand opening of its flagship store in Melbourne, Australia with a creative marketing stunt designed to drive excitement and foot traffic. adidas erected several giant shoe boxes throughout the mall and gave unsuspecting consumers passing by a left shoe with a voucher attached that they could redeem for a free pair of shoes of that style inside the adidas store.
The adidas marketing stunt was creatively executed and served as a great way to generate buzz and excitement at a relatively low cost. Check it out below:
It would be interesting to see professional sports teams benchmark this marketing/PR stunt to drive awareness and excitement for new merchandise items throughout the season. Teams could set up mystery boxes throughout the concourse (staffed by interns) giving away free apparel and premium giveaways - a tactic designed to drive traffic and sales in the official team shop.
Are you looking for new ways to leverage partnerships in an effort to drive retail traffic? Are you looking for new ways to leverage mascots and non-traditional characters?
adidas recently drove awareness and traffic to its flagship store on Orchard Road in Singapore by executing a terrific Stars Wars guerrilla marketing stunt. The exhibition, designed to promote the launch of adidas' 2010 Originals x Star Wars collection, featured approximately 20 Stars Wars characters (led by Darth Vader) raiding the adidas store, purchasing goods, and engaging with consumers while walking the streets of Singapore with branded adidas bags in tow. adidas teamed up with the 501st Star Wars Costume Group to execute the stunt.
Sports properties looking for new ways to drive traffic and buzz at retail should consider ways that they can benchmark adidas' creative Star Wars stunt. For example, properties and retail partners can easily team up to hire a team of actors wearing football equipment (resembling the team's players) running through a mall and into a desired store location during a busy shopping weekend.
Retail partners can even drive team affiliation awareness by featuring actors (in uniforms) doing touchdown celebrations/plays at high-traffic street corners and offer tickets/discounts to passerby consumers. Consider ways that you can leverage mascots and non-traditional characters (e.g. actors in uniform) to drive traffic and awareness to your location. For the price of store appearance by a premier player ($750+ for 90 minutes), retailers can deliver as much (if not more) value with a set of qualified actors performing a unique marketing stunt!
Is your brand looking for new ways to penetrate the social networking space? Are you looking to provide consumers with additional content that they can own and share with friends?
Adidas recently unveiled an exclusive first look at Adidas.tv, a video distribution platform designed to provide online users with high quality, customizable content that they can share with colleagues and friends through social networking portals. Adidas.tv offers a large, clear display screen that features a variety of exclusive Adidas media content, including:
Exclusive Interviews with Adidas' Top Athletes
Event Footage
New Advertising and Viral Campaigns
The site offers an extremely easy-to-use tool that enables users to share content on the site with their family and friends. With one click of a button, users have the ability to post the site's media content on their social networking pages (MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, Friendstar, hi5, Windows Live, Wordpress, Yahoo, etc.) as a widget or send it to a mobile phone device or an email inbox.
When sharing content, Adidas provides consumers with the option of choosing whether they would like to post a specific video, an entire channel (e.g. Adidas Basketball Channel), or an Adidas.tv microsite on their preferred social networking platform.
Enclosed is a video that displays the type of exclusive content that users can expect to see on Adidas.tv:
A special thanks to Sebastien Duval of Rubber Republic for his insights and contributions to this column.
Partnership Activation
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