Adidas boast unrivalled social media engagement this summer – but is it a success?

It’s been a huge summer of sport so far, and there’s plenty more where that came from.

With Euro 2016, Wimbledon, the Copa America and just the usual, generalised hype around sport making it hugely talked about on social media, now’s the time for brands to get their messages out.

And Adidas are claiming to be big winners of the social media brand war this summer.

The German sportswear giants are basing their claims of success on the shares they’ve amassed across their social media channels, with over 1.6 million across its accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube during the Champions League final, the Copa America and Euro 2016.

They also claim that they’ve managed more than twice the engagement of the next best brand over the competitions.

As an official sponsor of Euro 2016, their kits and boots were highly visible on the pitch, as well as their logo plastered on the advertising hoardings around it. Then there’s the players themselves, many of whom are Adidas-sponsored.

Creating content in an environment like that is easy in some ways: there’s a lot to work with, not to mention the ready-made exposure. Players like Paul Pogba and Mesut Ozil were on show in the latter stages of the Euros, and Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi in the Copa America around the same time. To cash in on the action, Adidas put together tonnes of shareable content across the platforms as part of their #FirstNeverFollows campaign.

The engagement speaks for itself. Adidas’s campaigns have been popular on social media throughout Euro 2016, and the creativity has been a joy; consumers have lapped it up. The output combines original creations, clearly shot pre-tournament, and use of in-game footage showing off their sponsored footballers.

It’s also not the first time that Adidas have taken the internet by storm with promotional short form videos that people find themselves sharing. The ‘Boss Everyone’ campaign in January featured videos of Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, Chelsea’s Oscar and Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane.

Clearly Adidas’s pursual of shares on social media is bearing fruit. People are indeed enjoying the content and sharing it – so it’s an unqualified success, given their aims. But the question then becomes, ‘is the strategy the right one?’

“In pursuing a qualitative metric, like most shareable, the results imply that Adidas’ content featuring the ‘First Never Follows’ messaging has resonated on a deeper, more meaningful level,” said Adidas senior director of global brand communications for football, Florian Alt.

A social media share is an endorsement from a consumer. Word of mouth has always spread interest in brands and products, but in an age where Twitter and Facebook are the easiest way to share things you find interesting or useful, word of smartphone has become all powerful. Or so think Adidas. You’d almost think a social media share is one of the most personal and intimate assets that a person has.

Alt continues, “Our products and strong relationships with our assets set us apart from the competition, driving shareability and cementing our position as the number one football brand.”

But that may well be because of an inherent Adidas inferiority complex. Competitor Nike have such a strong brand and such a recognisable product that they don’t seem to have to make the waves that Adidas do in order to continue as the number one sportswear brand.

Adidas may have blown the competitors out of the water with more content and, consequently, more shares, but Nike’s ability to elicit such ‘endorsements’ from their audience remains just as potent. One tweet celebrating Nike athlete Cristiano Ronaldo after Portugal (whose kits are made by Nike, too) won Euro 2016 garnered just as much engagement, even though it looked to require a lot less effort on the part of the social media team.

If shareability on social media translates to product sales and brand loyalty, it makes sense to flood your timeline with shareable content. But you do risk oversaturation and putting your audience off. Nike, meanwhile, are showing that a strong brand, coupled with more infrequent and well timed content can be just as effective.

Even in the age of the smartphone, it looks like there’s no shortcut to having the whole package.

About author

Chris McMullan
Chris McMullan 831 posts

Chris is a sports journalist and editor of Digital Sport - follow him on Twitter @CJMcMullan_

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