Adidas Rent-A-Pred Campaign was scenario-led marketing at its finest
Adidas helped 6-a-side teams across London to solve the eternal problem of unreliable teammates — by providing some of London’s best Predator players to those in need.
Rent-A-Pred was a WhatsApp hotline that was set up to inspire teams in need of a player to acquire a ‘ringer’, (a seriously good footballer, NOT from your team) complete with a brand spanking pair of the Predator 20+ Mutator to give that team a totally ‘unfair advantage’.
Scenario-led marketing at it’s finest…
Overcoming a problem: Teammates not turning up for games constantly happens for 6-a-side teams!
Authenticity: Adidas show that they understand football. ‘Ringers’ are players (often of a high quality) that guest for a football team and offer an unfair advantage to that team.
Link to product: The new DemonSkin technology, with 406 spikes on the boot gives the player better control and swerve on the ball — it’s an unfair advantage (…100% unfair)
Human Insight: Your choice of football boots says everything about you as a player. If you know, you know…
But what about the social media bit, well…
Launch Video: Social-first, influencer-led humorous launch video with clear CTA to WhatsApp ‘PRED’ to 07444081752
Influencers: Adidas has taken a multi-channel approach to promoting the WhatsApp hotline across London/UK to drive awareness among a core of 18–24yo football players with key influencers in the area, some with modest numbers, some much more well known.
Dark Social: Use of WhatsApp with 1–2–1 comms, through automated responses with the famous F2 Freestylers, quite possibly the most iconic duo for younger football fans. A cheeky lil edit of the name to Adidas London was one of the few places you could be critical of campaign.
Surprise & Delight : It’s not everyday a class footballer rocks up on your doorstep to play for your team.
The legendary retired Brazil midfielder Kaka attended the game as part of the campaign by Adidas.
Reachout FC, based in Hoxton, decided to call up on the Saturday and received Kaka(!!), who powered through — after being nutmegged to help Reachout win 4–2, recovering from the embarrassment of a megs to score a fine goal himself.
Share-a-bility + PR Value: Football media and retail websites and blogs saw the value and the story told itself over and over again online. Brands that consider PR as part of their distribution strategy… win.
Stories: Custom GIFs / sticker packs available in Stories, added a nice touch to the campaign.
Top work, Adidas London!
