Adidas is the equipment supplier for some of Europe's biggest clubs (Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus Turin, etc.) The problem: the french market is dominated by the leader Nike, the official sponsor of PSG, and by competing brands like Puma, sponsor of Olympique de Marseille. To increase its local presence and brand love, Adidas is betting on supporting its main European clubs. For the 2023/2024 season, it's the London club Arsenal, one of the clubs with the most fans in France, that is given a local push. The brief is clear: How to position the London club at the heart of French Gen Z culture at the intersection of sport and lifestyle. The goal: to become the favorite club of French Urban purists by putting its new jersey at the center of all social conversations at the start of 2023 back to school.

The Story: A French influencer got a super deal with adidas: a few of Arsenal's latest kits to give away to their community. Except that a real Gunner (Arsenal supporter) got wind of the operation, took control of the dedicated Broadcast Channel and decided to post their own riddles as UK slang voice notes to select the most deserving frenchies: those who can understand him.

In this first branded campaign inside an Instagram Broadcast Channel, 3 days of content told the story of our iconic duo:

- video skits filmed as if they were shot on the spot (replicating the style of Broadcast Channel content);

- pics & gifs to enliven our story,

- DMs to blend in rules, info, and build hype between every riddle;

- voice notes containing riddles in UK slang, sending our public all over the internet to find the right keyword for an Arsenal jersey.

To unveil its new jersey for the 2023/2024 season, Adidas has adopted an innovative approach that delves into french Gen Z culture. Our audience: 15-25 yo urban purists who embed their passion for football within a broader urban culture (8 million individuals).

In France, football (and their jerseys) lie at the heart of Generation Z's interests: music, TV shows, video games, fashion, memes, internet culture etc.

We decided to transform the traditional product launch into an interactive quest, leveraging a local quirk – the often-criticized English proficiency of the French – and a dominant cultural trend: the significant influence of London culture on French youth. In collaboration with Arsenal, Adidas designed a social media campaign based on challenges, riddles and insider culture to promote its new jerseys. This strategy relied on a novel feature that perfectly captures and celebrates the spirit of this insider culture: the broadcast channel.

First, we had to recruit our core target to sign up to adidasparis's Broadcast Channel named Lundun Calling.

To do so, a 1 min teaser content was posted on our main influencer's public social pages a few days before launching the activation.

After launch, everything happened in the Broadcast Channel, every video skit, text DM and vocal note riddle carefully planned in advance to tell a logical, real-time story lasting 3 days. Some video skits were reposted as Instagram Stories to keep recruiting users in the channel during the operation.

After every riddle in UK slang, participants could enter what they thought the password was in a dedicated website. First right, first served.

Riddles sent participants on a quest all over the internet for answers: Wikipedia pages, Google Maps, adidas social channels and even a Vinted post custom made for the operation.

Though this campaign chose to deploy solely through Adidas's Instagram broadcast channel, its results shone far beyond.

Some 30,000 players took part in the riddles released on the channel over more than three days.

The campaign garnered a total of 3 million impressions on all content organically posted by the brand.

More importantly, this campaign generated over 230,000 interactions, achieving the best engagement of the year on the @adidasparis instagram account with zero media investment.

Finally, even though it wasn't the initial aim, the brand saw a considerable +25% increase in sales on Arsenal products (YTD).