Adidas calls football World Cup pitch

By Anne Cassidy, campaignlive.co.uk, Thursday, 15 March 2012 08:00AM

Adidas has called a pitch for its global advertising campaign for the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

Adidas: its Star Wars-themed advertising was overshadowed by Nike during the 2010 World Cup

The initial pitch, involving both roster and non-roster agencies, is taking place this week, run out of the Adidas global headquarters in Germany.

Adidas’ main global roster agencies are the Canada-based Sid Lee and TBWA Worldwide.

Sid Lee, which picked up the global advertising business from 180 Amsterdam in July 2010, created a homage to the Star Wars cantina scene for Adidas’ sponsorship of the 2010 World Cup.

Adidas, one of the key sponsors of the 2014 tournament in Brazil, will be hoping its next World Cup campaign will do more to upstage rivals than its previous effort.

The brand’s advertising around its sponsorship of the last World Cup was overshadowed by Nike’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning "write the future" campaign by Wieden & Kennedy. Nike did not sponsor the event.

The Adidas Originals World Cup 2010 ad featured the likes of David Beckham, Franz Beckenbauer, Snoop Dogg and Noel Gallagher alongside Star Wars characters.

In January, Adidas and the retailer Foot Locker hired Creature London to create a campaign to launch a trainer in its retro Adidas Originals range after a pitch.

Adidas announced plans to continue its long partnership with Fifa, which stretches back more than 30 years, in June last year. At the time, Adidas voiced concern at allegations of corruption within the organisation.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk