Impossible Marketing

Adidas' "The Impossible Team" campaign for this year's World Cup will include a very cool online element: a multi-player game with various competitions and impressive prizes, including tickets to the event in Germany. 

Whereas Nike's joga.com social network is rooted in the Orkut platform hugely popular in Brazil, the Adidas online game is geared toward the young Asian males who are far ahead of the curve in the adoption of these types of games.  Two different approaches, but both deserve credit for innovative sponsorship takes.

Some thoughts from an IHT article on the campaign:

"With television you may reach a mass of consumers, but people switch channels so often it is hard to tell who is actually watching," Bezu said. "The cost of investing in the game is much cheaper than a television ad - especially during the World Cup - and it has other unique advantages."

 

In addition to getting the undivided attention of young consumers, Bezu said, Adidas aims to use the game to change the way in which consumers feel they interact with the company.

 

"With the game, we do more than offer to sell our consumers a product," Bezu said. "We entertain them, exchange with them and make them part of our brand." The game itself, developed by the Hong Kong-based Typhoon Games, will require each player to build and recruit a team before putting it to the test against teams built by other players.

 

Initially, credits can be earned through players practicing with minigames against the computer, like a penalty shootout or dribbling exercise. Once a player has earned enough credits, recruitment of team members begins while the player walks through a virtual city.