Adidas vs. Nike

Sportswear brand Adidas has long been aligned with soccer and is an official sponsor of FIFA World Cup.  They have engaged in both traditional and social media to promote their association with the World Cup, and they have even acted as a sponsor for grassroots soccer events, such as the Soccer Mansion in Washington, D.C.  Since the start of the World Cup, their online community has grown and their global website rank is 3,469, an impressive improvement from its pre-World Cup rank of 3,593.  Adidas seems to be doing all the right things to activate their sponsorship and seeing the kind of bump many sports sponsors long for.

So why are they still being beaten on awareness by Nike?  According to an article in Sports City, in a recent survey more people incorrectly identified Nike as a FIFA sponsor than correctly identified Adidas.  Considering that Adidas is known as a soccer powerhouse, it appears that Nike has found a way to more closely align itself with the sport.  Nike’s Write the Future ad, which cleverly avoids FIFA World Cup branding while featuring some of the world’s most prominent players, debuted online as well as on television and was advertised on Facebook and YouTube.  The video now has over 16 million views on YouTube alone. Not bad for what many have labeled ambush marketing.  Adidas rolled out an equally hip Star Wars-inspired commercial, but it has garnered a mere 3.6 million views – paltry by comparison.  Perhaps Nike’s strong suit was its use of social media tools to advertise its advertisement – previously unheard of in the industry.  Or, is this just a case of Nike putting the resources it saved by not sponsoring the World Cup towards related marketing efforts while Adidas overpaid for the same association (for the official title of sponsor and again for its activation)?  We will continue to watch web activity for both companies as the games progress.

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