Ahead of the EURO 2024 German football is in the middle of a crisis: The national Team’s poor performance, poor results and the poor mood of the fans are crushing any euphoria about the first big football tournament at home since 2006. The typical German love of football has seemingly disappeared.

As a German brand and DFB partner, adidas therefore set itself a bold goal for the home European Championship: to re-ignite the love of football through the launch of the new DFB jerseys. But how does a piece of fabric become a feeling?

Our task: We had to find an idea, that would turn a simple piece of fabric into a symbol for the new German vibe that could reignite the love for football in the country and make everyone excited for the EURO 2024.

Our idea: While other brands focused on the sporting success of their teams, we asked a much bigger question: What’s typical German in 2024. And by this turned the adidas DFB jerseys into symbols for a new German self-understanding.

The contrast between the typical German design of the home jersey and the very atypical pink away jersey provided the perfect narrative for our campaign. In a time where the German football is everything but typical German – what does a typical German jersey even stand for? And how will Germany react to the most atypical away jersey in German football history?

The campaign invited all of Germany to join the conversation and brought people together with a zeitgeisty and humorous take on what typical German means today.

The jerseys of the German national team have always been a symbol of self-understanding: Who are we? What are we standing for? That’s what we wanted to bring back.

Our strategy was to show, that even if today’s German national team didn’t stand up to the “typical German” football success of the past, a jersey still has the power to represent a whole country and reconnect it with the love for football. It was a chance to redefine what Germany stands for. Because if it’s not football success, then why should we stick to other old clichés like Bratwurst, Beer and Sauerkraut? We asked the audience: What is typical German in 2024?

Our social media campaign targeted football fans of all ages and invited them to join the conversation on what “typical German” means in the comment sections, turning the topic a nation-wide trend.

To launch the new home jersey, we released a 120 second social media film featuring the national team and Germany’s most famous influencers, musicians and celebrities answering the question “What is typical German?”, adding new layers and twists to the meaning of “typical German” contrasting various German clichés. For the soundtrack, we recomposed the “typical German” pop song from the 80’s “Major Tom”, that stormed the charts together with our film going viral.

But what about the new away jersey, that was launched on the same day? We did not forget about it: Waiting for the “typical German” backlash to the new pink color of jersey was part of the plan. We anticipated the “typical German” comments and had already produced a second film that not only countered the hate but made the new away jersey a symbol for a modern and more divers “typical German”.

With millions of views within the first 24 hours and hundreds of thousands of reactions and comments online and major news outlet coverage across Europe, the campaign inspired a nationwide conversation about what is “typical German”. But not only that: The campaign resulted in the most successful German adidas jersey launch of all time, with a record selling away jersey. But most importantly: It got Germany excited for the EURO and reignited the typical German love for Football.