TUTORIALS

ADIDAS “Impossible is nothing campaign”

Case study

1. What problems/issues did Adidas have?

2. What was the main objective of the campaign?
3. Describe Adidas’ target market?
4. What was their promotional strategy? Do you approve such a strategy? What was the
main criticism and how would you respond to it?
5. What elements of the promotional mix did they use? Why? Would you suggest any
additional elements? Why?
6. How would you measure the effectiveness of the campaign?
1. Adidas was still behind some of its direct rivals in the industry. In the first decade of
the 21st century, the company suffered major issues such as sales drops and loss of
sponsorships.
2. The main objective of the campaign was to “gain an edge over the competition and
reenergize its business in the US”, meaning that Adidas had the goal to (re)gain some of
the market share and revitalize its image in the eyes of the national consumers
3. Adidas mainly focuses on people who are around 13-30 years of age, who are into
sports. Their products are affordable but the quality is of high end. It was launched only
for sports people, but with the changing trends, people of other disciplines also started
purchasing the products due to its high quality. As noted in the study paper, the
campaign was focused on 12- to 24-year-old consumers involved in sports.
4. The promotional strategy was to reach American consumers and to improve the
company’s market share in the US, with television, print, and Internet advertising,
featuring some of the elite athletes from various sports and based on “overcoming the
impossible”. The criticism of not focusing on the products is not really pertinent if we
consider the identity building that this sort of campaign allowed to generate.
5. The elements used were the advertising, (personal) selling, and direct marketing. With
the different initiatives promoted, all the way to, for example, encouraging consumers to
share ir own stories of overcoming the impossible to succeed, and giving prizes for it, I
believe that the elements were all good calls, with the awards that the campaign received
coming to show exactly that.
6. The effectiveness of the campaign is reflected in its accolades and praises, as well in
the increase of mediatism and, most importantly, sales.