How to build an Olympic shoe campaign.
In todays world we are often bombarded with so many messages from brands. From products to services, it can all be very overwhelming for the end consumer. So how can you make sure your next campaign breaks through the white noise? You need to stand out from your competition but also navigate the minefield of branded content and advertising from outside of your industry. Using our latest adidas campaign, we are sharing our key steps to a successful product campaign.
Step 1. Know Your Product
What is it that is that makes your product unique? What value does your product add to your consumer and what problem does it solve for them? Often these questions would have been the very reason behind the products development in the first place. However by the time it has reached the marketing team and they need to communicate it with the target audience, the message has been diluted or even lost completely.
We went back to step 1 with adidas when developing the campaign for the new Hiangle Pro. In order to do this we connected with the product development team to truly understand what was so special about the product and why it was created. By understanding why the product was created and the value it gave their customers we knew exactly what we needed to be showing their audience to make sure it caught their attention.
The Hiangle Pro had a package of innovative technology that was designed with a specific purpose. To communicate this visually we used exploded imagery. To the target audience, they would see the innovative engineering straight away. This product is different!
Step 2. Know Your Audience
It might sound simple but really understanding your target audience is key to ensuring you resonate with them and your message does not get lost in a sea of video content and animated banner ads. Knowing your audience sits on two levels when marketing a specific product.
Who is the product targeted at, what value does it bring them and what problem does it solve for them
What is special about this audience, what is special about them and what really resonates with them on an emotional level.
Truly knowing your audience will allow you to fine tune a campaign that really speaks their language and makes them stop what they are doing and want to engage with what you are showing them. Ultimately you want them to be excited to find out more.
As outdoor sports specialists, knowing this audience is our bread and butter. We are immersed and a part of the very audience we are talking to. With the Hiangle Pro, the product knowledge that we gained in step one meant we understood completely why this shoe was created and what value it gave the target audience. This also informed the usage situation, narrowing down our target audience further and allowing us to fine tune our messaging. With a shoe that was intended for performance bouldering, one that was going to be used in the Olympics and one that was targeted at those with a competitive streak - Using the worlds best athletes was imperative to validating the shoe.
Janja Garnbret is the 6 x World Champion. Domen Skofic is a lead climbing World Champion and was influential in the development of the shoe. Utilising the pool of talent at adidas 5.10’s disposal allowed us to validate the shoe with the target audience in a credible way.
Step 3. Simplify The Message
Know what you want to say, identity the key message and strip it back to make it as easy as possible to understand.
This can sometimes be a lot harder than it seems, especially when you are trying share so much information in a such a short time. We are experts in simplifying the message. A great advertising campaign will inspire your audience to want to find out more, you don’t need to tell them everything right away, tease them. For the Hiangle Pro we used a combination action and product imagery to communicate the message alongside the key value proposition of the product - ‘Explosive Performance’.
In bringing the creative together we had to align both product and action imagery with a common message. The campaign would sit across print, digital, in store and online and be translated into multiple languages. The messaging needed to be simple yet powerful and reflect the value proposition of the product. This key message would also be the basis for the wider brand communications, product copy and press releases.
Step 4. Understand your communication channels
Even the best marketing campaigns can fall on death ears if you do not understand your communication channels and how you are going to reach your target audience. With social media, digital advertising, print, outdoor and more; campaigns have to work harder than ever and there is no one size fits all approach. Understanding your communication channels and how to optimise your visual messaging and copy is key to success. From optimising algorithms to ensuring your message is appropriate for the channel you are using to communicate it on. This is a key part of the strategy in any successful campaign.
For the Hiangle Pro, we developed the campaign to sit across multiple communication channels and created a design and copy template that would influence any future iterations of the campaign. This would ensure consistency. The creative was resized to be optimised for all the relevant channels including adidas.com, social media, print and in-store retail. For each format the messaging and sizing was optimised to be the most impactful in each situation. To further strengthen the campaign we created male, female and product focused creatives. This would allow even more precise audience targeting and support international markets where the talent was less relevant.
By understanding the channel or situation your customer is likely to engage with the campaign, we can fine tune and improve the messaging. The in-store POS poster above is used to inform the customer of the value proposition in a retail environment. The product landing page below takes the customer on a sales journey on adidas.com.
So there you have it, our 4 key steps to building an Olympic shoe campaign. These principles however can be applied to any campaign and we ensure we consider every step along our creative journey. The work we do influences and helps to shape the work of other teams, these 4 steps ensure the best possible outcomes for all. The Hiangle Pro is now available on adidas.com and we hope to see the shoe being used in future Olympics to claim the top step of the podium.
If you want to find out how we can help you to create more impactful and meaningful campaigns for your business get in touch today.
