We needed to unleash the Pro Evo 1 and adidas’ ‘lightest ever’ story with maximum impact, traversing tease, reveal and launch phases with hyper real storytelling and original creative. What this couldn’t be was just another shoe release leading up to just another marathon. It had to make a statement.

There were two objectives post-launch: first, to sustain excitement and advocacy by dominating feeds and news-agenda ahead of the Berlin Marathon weekend, where winning the biggest share of brand voice was paramount.

Second was driving sign-ups to the adidas Running app, where a limited number of consumers could enter a global raffle to purchase a pair.

Finally, came planning for the biggest moment of all: a potential world record scenario in adidas’ biggest owned race. They knew history could be made, but that this was also a moment where their shoe could transcend the event itself and make global news.

To work up a frenzy before Berlin, we had to build a mythology around a shoe that could make history. Our campaign would demonstrate how impossibly light the Pro Evo 1 was, blurring the line between reality and imagination.

We teased its arrival with a ‘caught in the wild’ shot – a shape-shifting murmuration of birds that glide into a formation of the shoe’s silhouette. On launch day, we dropped a full toolkit and hero video that used pioneering AI technology to elevate the unreality of the shoe.

We sustained momentum with further reality-bending videos: a unique unboxing with floating shoes to bamboozle future German record holder Amanal Petros, plus exaggerated ‘sightings’ of the Pro Evo 1 in Berlin’s skies and beyond.

After Tigist Assefa made history in Berlin, we hung those flying shoes on the city’s famous TV Tower as a broadcast to the world. You couldn’t miss them.

For adidas, this was a landmark innovation story. In secret, they created their lightest shoe of all time – and weren’t afraid to let the world know about it from the very beginning.

The PR strategy, therefore, was to flood feeds and the most influential news sites before the race with product buzz and trusted advocacy. And to be brave: before the Pro Evo 1 had even been used in an elite race, we declared it a shoe designed to revolutionise running economy and set marathon records.

Primarily, our strategy was to educate around the technical craft of a racing shoe that was light beyond belief. We focused on this product technology in our communications and activations, targeting key broadcasters, running verticals and other hype/innovation influencers that would appeal to our target audience of ambitious and elite runners – those looking for a shoe that would help go even faster.

Our PR strategy was to generate buzz and excitement amongst our most influential media – and crucially, educate them on what made the shoe so groundbreaking.

To do this, ahead of the Berlin marathon, over 200 top-tier media outlets from around the world dialled into an immersive, digitally led media experience. The event was kicked off with a 20-minute live broadcast, where our product experts deep-dived into the creation of this industry-defining shoe, detailing how it had been creating with – and for – the fastest runners on the planet.

Following the immersive broadcast, exclusive one-on-one media interviews with our key brand spokespeople took place, enabling them to dive even deeper into the creation of the shoe. For the first time, adidas Running decided to not seed anyone apart from the two athletes competing at the Berlin marathon, creating even more hype and desirability.

If our campaign had already made global news, then Tigist’s victory in Berlin launched it into the stratosphere. Together, we made the Pro Evo 1 the most talked about running shoe of the year: over 1,400 pieces of PR coverage with 99% positive or neutral sentiment – 500+ of which came after the world record moment.

With the super shoe discussion in overdrive, adidas’ innovation story was front and centre of the success.

The Pro Evo 1 provided hype moments across all of the brand’s digital touchpoints. For the adidas Running app’s global raffle, there were 27 times more sign-ups than product available – and it wasn’t just that shoe to benefit, either: app traffic to adidas’ more commercially available marathon product, the Adizero Adios Pro 3, also spiked the day after Berlin.

Finally, a supercharged social strategy allowed us to hit unprecedented numbers across adidas Running channels. Our organic preview content with athlete Amanal Petros reached 640,000 accounts on Instagram, setting the tone for an explosive race day: 12m video views after Tigist held the Pro Evo 1 aloft in celebration for the channel’s biggest ever reactive post, followed by our TV Tower statement piece that heroed the world record shoe and its remarkable moment. Even our paid campaign supporting both of those assets over-delivered by 282%, reaching almost 105m European accounts across Instagram and Facebook.

This was a campaign that commanded attention on all fronts. For adidas, their boldness was rewarded – unprecedented awareness for an unprecedented product.