Adidas | There Will Be Haters

The age when sporting heroes were idolised by fans and used to soak constructive criticism are almost gone. In our days, sport stars feel just as self-conscious as any other human. The question is, how should they react in such situations?

Adidas, one of the largest sportswear manufacturers around the world, decided to put the matter and the feelings of the athletes in plain sight by launching a campaign on January of 2015, produced by London-based agency Iris. Well known star players,such as Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema participated in the campaign. The selection of the players was definitely not random — all of them have been characterized as quite controversial over the years. It is time for them to come face to face with the camera and empower the impact of the advertisement.

The Spot

“They hate the way you walk, they hate the way you talk, they hate the way you stand up” are the first words you hear the voice-over yelp as the famous athletes raise their head to look at the camera as if they are worried and sad. When being a well-known person, common actions such as walking and talking can be features that someone can hate about you. The spot quickly starts to show its boldness when trolling hashtags start to appear on the screen.

“They hate the way you stand out” is the next statement, followed by the image of one sport star sparkling when taking off his hood. “They just wanna take you out, and they hate you because they couldn’t if they tried” is the point where the protagonists start to change their facial expression. They realise that they are unbeatable — the spot shows it literally by a moment when Suarez is inside a boxing ring and haters can not even “punch” him and in the end, he still smiles because he knows that he is invincible.

Followed by another scene where Luis Suarez runs and nothing touches him, the trolling continues with Karim Benzema who scores while taking a selfie, James Rodriguez “gets all the girls”, while showing a shirtless picture of him and girls drooling over it. “They hate it when you win, the way you celebrate!” while a Gareth Bale is taking a picture in his pool shaping a heart with his fingers when actually he is on vacation in his own heart-shaped island.

In the last third of the spot, the company addresses the product. James Rodriguez stands smiling while holding the “trophy”, which is a golden statue of the new Adidas shoes. The music starts getting louder when the athletes identify their worth — “That you’ve got the magic touch, that you’re the best player on the street, the team, the pitch, the lead, the country, the world. And they hate your shiny new boots, they hate your boots cuz they wish they were in them!” In this part, the reason why everyone hates the protagonists is because they are jealous — because they would wish to be in their shoes, Adidas shoes.

A complication follows to close the spot, where everyone — including the haters — can see the luxurious life of the football players, from driving expensive cars to owning private jets,what they have achieved and how happy they are with themselves. Of course one of their achievements is the ability to wear Adidas new boots, which are now available for everyone to try — try on the shoes and come closer to what the athletes have become. James Rodriguez invites you to troll this.

Additional Spot

After the big success of the first advertisement, Adidas hit the crowd with another spot the same year. This time, there was only one protagonist — Lionel Messi.

The line of the spot remained the same — we see the famous football player while the voice-over states achievements that everyone told him he couldn’t do such as “You’ll never make it with the big boys in the big league.. You never break a record and no way all of them…you will never be the greatest”. Time has already shown that Messi is the second best player worldwide , that’s the reason why the whole spot has one and only scene, he is a legend and nothing else is needed. The camera revolves around Messi, showing him change quickly from his casual clothes to his sport outfit. As the screen zooms out, we see all of his trophies — including the golden boots statue- and other people that have tried but failed to reach him, standing frozen.

In the last close-up view, Messi gets a turn to “shh” anyone who is watching, since he has revealed one of his secrets.

Why is this advertising campaign so acclaimed?

We have three reasons: Great storytelling, appropriate models, effective use of Social Networking Sites.

Adidas imply that heroes always encounter hardships but they should persist. Instead of spreading negativity, Adidas trolls the situation with the use of hashtags and the tone of the narrators’ voice. #THEREWILLBEHATERS is a bulletproof campaign that actively encourages ‘hate’ and actually invites you to embrace the abuse. All of the individuals who despised you would eventually accept you as a legend. That’s exactly what the story of each sport star proves.

Statistics

KPIs exceeded by 220% (on average)

45M views over 3 months (KPI 10M)

Awards 2015

Bronze Cannes Integrated Cyber Lion

5 Campaign BIG Awards 2015

Eurobest 5 Gold Integrated Award

Creative Circle –Best Online Film

APG — Silver Award

The Drum Dream Awards — Integrated Sport & Leisure Campaign

Our team (Market Rangers): Laoura Apostolou, Dimitra Giannakopoulou, Marilyn Koutonias, Christina Panagakou, Eleni Protopapa, miketrigkas, Marios Joseph

⇋ Special thanks to Mrs. Betty Tsakarestou & Lina Kiriakou⇌