adidas taps cricket’s athletes to push ‘Impossible is Nothing’

adidas has unveiled its biggest and most expensive Indian campaign to piggyback on what it calls the “Champagne Year” of sporting action in India.

Said Andreas Gellner, managing director, adidas India, “The next 12 months have an unprecedented line-up of global sports events in India, and this campaign kicks off our marketing blitz.” 

Created around cricket, the campaign focuses on athletes by highlighting the attitude and intensity that they bring to the game and the resultant moments of thrill and brilliance;  tying the creative concept with the global ‘Impossible is Nothing’ brand philosophy.  “Cricket and football are the two key sports for adidas in India. We are the No. 1 football brand in the world and with our partnerships with some of the leading symbols in the cricket world such as the Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Cricket Australia, English Cricket Board, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Virender Sehwag, we are a major force in cricket,” added Gellner.

 “As an authentic sports brand our challenge was to tap an inspiring insight that is true to our brand values and performance heritage while creating strong emotional engagement with consumers. The sheer quantum of cricket related advertising in India strangely made our task simpler since our campaign focuses on the core of the sport - the athlete - rather than the peripherals associated with it. Athletes, at all levels, are the driving force of our brand and we strive to partner them in helping them achieve their impossible” said Tushar Goculdas, director – marketing and sales, adidas India. “The campaign puts the spotlight on athletes and depicts the grit, confidence, irreverence and above all the thrill of playing sports - something we hope all viewers will be able to relate to”. 

Shot entirely in black and white with 16 mm photosonic films camera, with 500 frames per second, the commercials aim to present an “authentic never-seen-before side of cricket”. Besides three 40-second TVCs that roll out today, an integrated campaign has also been launched including an exclusive website, www.adidas.com/cricket and brand activation at adidas’s 600 stores nationwide.

WATCH the "Bowler" TVC here:

Watch the "Batsman" TVC here:

Watch the "Fielder" TVC here:

Kawal Shoor, president- planning, Ogilvy India said, “adidas, as the authentic sports brand, wanted to avoid superficial jingoism. Instead, it wanted to base its communication on a real insight. Through this work, adidas attempts to give voice to the budding young Indian cricketer and how he triumphs over daily dilemmas and ordeals on the cricket field with his’ Impossible is Nothing’  attitude.”

"Sadly, India doesn't really have a true sporting culture. adidas has the ambition of being India's first true sports brand. Till date almost all ads around cricket or cricketers have been about everything but the purity of the sport. No one has spoken from the point of view of the cricketer... what it is like to be on the field. This 'Pure Cricket' series aims to do that while capturing the 'Impossible is nothing' attitude which is at the heart of this inspirational brand... something we know will echo with every young budding cricketer in India," added Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy & Mather India.

While TBWA India continues to be adidas’s lead agency partner globally and in India, adidas has brought O&M India on board to create this campaign. “Given the scale and the ambition of this cricket campaign, we wanted to seek fresher ideas and thus, invited the top few agencies to showcase a brand idea. What Ogilvy presented perfectly aligned with our expectations and we decided to partner with them for this campaign,” said Goculdas.

The films have been directed by Prasoon Pandey and produced by Corcoise Films.