Taking over as kit supplier in 2020-21, adidas brought Leeds United into its pandemic-influenced, global ‘Ready for Sport’ brand platform when unveiling the new kit in mid-August 2020.
Territory: UK
Agency: Iris / In-House
Objectives
The objective was to leverage the excitement around the club’s return to the top tier of English football – for the first time in more than fifteen years – to drive sales through both the sportswear brand and the club’s online purchasing platforms.
Activation
The creative took inspiration from adidas’s umbrella ‘Ready For Sport’ brand platform (which first launched in April during the first North American/European lockdown), and asked whether the Premier League was ‘Ready For Leeds’.
The campaign launched on August 19, three weeks ahead of the club’s first Premier League match.
Its multi-channel work was spearheaded by a hero ‘Adidas x Leeds’. Released first on the club’s Twitter feed and then across its digital and social channels, the 60-second video features famous fans like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Ralph Ineson and club legends like defender Lucas Radebe and forward Lee Sharpe.
The creative highlights several key product features, reminds viewers that the club has won more trophies wearing their famous white shirt than any other colour jersey and urges fans ‘from the streets to the stands, no matter where the game takes you, show your support for this one club city’ – plus the key info: ‘you can order yours on Thursday 20th August from 8am online only on https://shop.leedsunited.com/ and coming soon on http://adidas.co.uk’.
Ready for Leeds.
20.08.20 // 08:00#LUFC x @adidasfootball #ReadyForSport pic.twitter.com/5Rxyi9u8Pb— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 19, 2020
The lead spot was supported through additional social media content featuring imagery of players from the men’s and women’s teams.
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The new home shirt received further promotion a week later through a joint campaign with new sleeve sponsor JD Sports, launched on August 26, led by a spot fronted by midfielder Kalvin Phillips.
Outcome
Just 48 hours after the kit launch, record breaking demand meant most shirt sizes were sold out and the club and supplier had to make an earlier than expected production re-run.
The campaign generated the most viewed content on both the Leeds and adidas UK Twitter channels since 2017. The launch video notched 573,000 in 48 hours and generated more than a million views on Leeds’ social channels in the two months after it was posted (led by 661,000 on Twitter, 168,000 on Facebook, 85,000 on Instagram and 63,000 on YouTube). Supporting social racked up a further 200,000 views within two months of the launch.