EURO 2024 is taking place in Germany, the home of adidas. However, due to disappointing results of the national team, a Covid-EURO, and controversial World Cups in Russia and Qatar, Germany is far from being in a football frenzy. With the release of the official match ball for EURO 2024, adidas wanted to reignite this love for football and recreate the feeling of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Traditionally, match ball launches are extremely exclusive events. We were tasked to create an inclusive spectacle that gave Germany the opportunity to truly feel Fussballliebe by being the first to thoroughly test the new ball.

Create an event that re-establishes adidas as a peer sport brand. Create an image that goes around the world to generate high PR returns. Charge the name Fussballliebe with emotional significance well before the start of the tournament and make it a symbol of EURO 2024.

Germany has a problem. Back-to-back international tournament disappointments has bored fans and caused a record drop in audiences and sports participation. The country has fallen out of love with football. So, for the launch of the EURO 2024 official match ball, adidas wanted to bring that passion back.

Traditionally, match ball launches are extremely exclusive and dull events. We were tasked to create an inclusive spectacle that gave Germany the opportunity to truly feel Fussballliebe by being the first to thoroughly test the new ball.

We created an all-inclusive ball drop in Berlin, led by the universal footballing insight – if you have a ball, you have a game and anywhere is your pitch. Which created our overarching idea - wherever a ball "drops," a football pitch is created.

We targeted dormant and active football fans across Germany, but primarily in Berlin, who feel disenfranchised with the national team.

By creating an all-inclusive event in their city over the weekend of an important national game against Germany’s biggest rivals Turkey (a deep lying rivalry all Germans are aware about), we were able to launch a ball that connected with them on a deeper level.

Twinned with creative strategy - wherever a ball "drops," a football pitch is created. We created a spectacle deliberately placed outside the Berlin Olympic Stadium that inspired many to reignite their love of football and take part in something new.

We dropped the biggest ball ever, a 20-meter football, right in front of the Berlin Olympic Stadium, its imprint creating the world’s first playable crater football pitch and the whole nation was invited.

Lasting 72 hours, the event featured tournaments, training sessions, freestyle battles and appearances by Germany’s best players. The finale featured the German national team playing against Turkey, where the new ball was used for the first time. Thus, adidas created an image that went around the world. And showed all of Germany - wherever there is a ball, there’s plenty of football love to be had.

We then replicated the concept across the country, dropping balls into eight key cities where a pitch was created from the impact the large ball had left in the ground. The pitches became public playing areas where fans could be the first to trial the new Fussballliebe ball.

Worldwide TV and press reports, over 778 million organic impressions on social media, and the most successful sales launch of an adidas football made the drop of Fussballliebe the perfect start to EURO 2024 for adidas.