adidas "adidas celebrates 125 years of DFB"

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

To launch adidas’ 125 Years of DFB anniversary jersey, we turned a product drop into football mythology— revealing the shirt as “made from the fabric of legends.” In a cinematic launch film, German football icons like Rudi Völler, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and Nia Künzer craft the from a fictional, secret archive of German football jerseys, passing its champion spirit to the next generation of German football stars represented by Florian Wirtz and Jule Brand. 

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

The engagement was +63% vs. target. This marks a Top5 social media performance amongst all communication targets for adidas for the year. It worked especially well by triggering engagement from three different generations of fans: The GenZ audience loved to see itself represented by young stars, while the older generations reacted greatly to seeing their favorites in Müller and Neuer who were Germany’s biggest football stars during the first two decades of the 2000s. Lastly, even the Boomers and Gen X generations reacted positively to making 1990ies World Cup Champ Rudi Völler a main protagonist.
We believe, that it could be especially inspiring to the industry by shifting the use of sports stars from merely showcasing their sports talent to giving them a character role in a storytelling film with a fictional drama plot - we’d love to see more of this in the future from other brands and their stars.

Objective

To celebrate the launch of its 125 years of DFB anniversary jersey, adidas asked for a memorable campaign that tapped deep into the shared legacy of adidas and the German Football Federation. The classic white 125 years anniversary jersey represents Germany’s white home jerseys over the years - it’s the archetypal German soccer jersey. 
While this jersey was made as an homage to the German Federation’s incredible success in its own right, the main objective was to create hype around the launch and boost sales. 

Strategy & Execution

For us, the anniversary jersey represents all of the adidas national team jerseys that came before it in the past 70 years, along with all the players that had the honor to wear one in their German national team appearances and the glorious triumphs they achieved while wearing it. 
Metaphorically speaking, the anniversary jersey is made from the fabric of legends.
In our launch film, we show the fictitious creation of the jersey at a mysterious headquarter where former German national team legends are employed:
Rudi Völler, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and Nia Künze. 
Thomas Müller is in charge of the anniversary jersey „recipe“, which he totally is not just making up on the fly – and of course the anniversary jersey has to feature a bunch of European, Olympic and World Champions‘ moxie in it.
In the end, the current generation of players represented by Jule Brand and Florian Wirtz are picking up their new in-game jerseys.  

Organizations

• Production Company

  Sweetspot Film GmbH

Links

•   Website

Featured

• Rudi Völler

• Thomas Müller
• Manuel Neuer
• Nia Künzer
• Jule Brand
• Florian Wirtz

Credits

Robert Zitzmann
Managing Director
Jung von Matt

Katja Kraus
Managing Director
Jung von Matt

Ronnie Patt
Executive Creative Director
Jung von Matt

Alexander Michaelsen
Executive Creative Director
Jung von Matt

Robert Weider
Creative Director Art
Jung von Matt

Lars Grübler
Creative Director Copy
Jung von Matt

Benjamin Krause
Art Director
Jung von Matt

Mark Bennett
Art Director
Jung von Matt

Ralf Bierhenke
Art Director Professional
Jung von Matt

Irakli Asatiani
Copywriter
Jung von Matt

Eva Backes
Client Service Director
Jung von Matt

Peer Scholmann
Account Manager
Jung von Matt

Josephine Neblung
Junior Account Manager
Jung von Matt

Johannes Haverkamp
Head of Creative Services
Jung von Matt

Elisa Stieger
Senior Producer
Jung von Matt

Malte Rehde
Principal Production
Jung von Matt

Frank Kirchhoff
Senior Retouch Artist
Jung von Matt

Thomas Thiessen
Senior DTP Operator
Jung von Matt

Sinan Sevinc
Director
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Felix Antretter
Executive Producer
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Finn Kalk
Producer
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Kea Lange
Assistant Producer
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Marius Knieling
Photographer
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Christina Mammes
Production Designer
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Nik Kohler
Editor
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Connor Coolbear
Grading
Sweetspot Film GmbH

Alexander David Wolf
Music
Sweetspot Film GmbH