For the launch of the adizero Crazy Light 2 shoes, the lightest basketball shoes on the planet, adidas saw the sky as the limit for promoting its revolutionary basketball shoes. And that’s exactly where Adidas took its shoes.

To demonstrate the product’s extreme lightness, Adidas attached adizero Crazy Light 2 shoes to balloons fitted with GPS devices and launched the balloons into the Beijing skyline after formally introducing the shoe to consumers at a launch event. The event took place at a university in Beijing, bringing the passion, energy and excitement straight to the target consumers.

In the weeks leading up to the launch event, the team developed strategic relationships with key opinion leaders and influential media to build excitement for the event among the Chinese basketball community.

In 24 hours, the event generated more than 65 TV, print, and online clippings. The event generated remarkable buzz for the product on Sina Weibo, China’s main micro blogging platform, creating a nationwide impact reaching more than 9,840,000 Weibo fans after the event finished. Overall, the launch event generated 201 pieces of coverage, including 8 cover stories, and reached more than 24.5m people. The team launched a digital activation element on Adidas’ local landing page and Weibo to attract consumers and drive greater traffic to stores. Online, 65,209 users followed the balloons, and there were 42,527 mentions of Crazy Light 2 on Weibo. Retail activations followed the media launch with more than 50 stores involved and large-scale consumer turnout.

The launch event took place at the China University of Geoscience’s basketball court and included members of the media, university students, key opinion leaders, several Chinese Basketball Association stars, and adidas basketball ambassadors (and China’s national players), Meng Duo and Zhang Qingpeng. During the event, an adidas representative introduced the Crazy Light 2’s new innovation in light-weight technology.

Next, a handful of chosen media representatives wore the shoes and participated in a 5-on-5 basketball competition, followed by a balancing game where participants were able to weigh items in their pocket against the new Crazy Light 2 shoes.

The event ended with the momentous balloon releasing ceremony, designed to showcase how lightweight the shoes are, where 44 sneakers were launched into the sky attached to balloons. Lucky consumers who tracked and managed to find the shoes could redeem them for a brand new pair at the adidas Beijing SanLitun Brand Center.

In 24 hours, the event generated more than 65 TV/print/online clippings. Remarkable buzz for the product was seen on Sina Weibo, China’s main micro blogging platform, creating a nationwide impact reaching more than 9,840,000 Weibo fans after the event finished.

Overall, the launch event generated 201 clippings, including 8 cover stories, and reached more than 24.5m people. The team launched a digital activation element on Adidas’ local landing page and Weibo to attract consumers and drive greater traffic to stores. Online, 65,209 users followed the balloons, and there were 42,527 mentions of Crazy Light 2 on Weibo.

The event itself received more than 11 minutes of airtime on CCTV-5 (national), BTV 6 (Beijing), STV (Shanghai), GZTV (Guangzhou), and CSPN (Hubei province, Shandong province and Xinjiang province), nationwide. Retail activations followed the media launch with more than 50 stores involved and large-scale consumer turnout.