Football is big in Amsterdam

Of course Cannes Lions is the event of the year for the ad industry. But every 4 years ads have a big competitor for attention: football. In most creatives still hides a little boy dreaming of becoming the new Messi, Drogba, Rooney or Sneijder. So this week they will have their eyes on two screens; to get inspired by the most glorious ads and to see their heroes score on the pitch.

The most important battles will take place in the stadiums of South-Africa, but another important one started weeks ago on Facebook and in other media: the battle of the brands. The two biggest sport brands, Adidas and Nike, have launched the biggest campaigns in years and aim to win the hearts of football fans around the world. It can't be a coincidence the ideas behind these campaigns were created in the Netherlands, a football minded and creative little country. 180 Amsterdam (adidas' creative agency) and Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam (Nike's agency) are both located at Herengracht in Amsterdam so it takes little imagination to visualise the canal as a playing field where both agencies played their own match. But it was definitely more than a game. Both agencies worked their asses off to get their clients to a next level in advertising.

For 180 the job started right after the World Cup in 2006. As official Fifa Partner adidas gets to design the match ball.180 Detail was directly involved in developing the ‘Jabulani', the colourful match ball which can best be described as: African design meets German engineering. The 11 colours on the ball do not only represent the 11 players in every team, but also the 11 official languages of South Africa and the 11 South African tribes that make the country one of the most ethnologically diverse countries on the African continent. 180 Detail took the form of the ball and translated it into a completely new font, which is used in all communication.

Adidas didn't chose to have one big communication peak, probably because the media budget isn't as big as other competitors. Part one of the campaign was already launched in 2009. In ‘The Spark'-film football-icon Zinedine Zidane started his search for the real football heroes and he found ‘The Spark' in Lionel Messi. The story is visualised in a graphic novel style. 180's executive creative director Andy Fackrell says: ‘We got inspired by martial arts and Japanese manga's and chose to tell the story in a graphic novel style. People expect a lot from a brand like adidas and we've used documentary style before, so we really wanted to create something completely new.' During the year Zidane's search continued and he found player types like ‘The Powerhouse', ‘The Lightning Strika' and ‘The Maestro', all presented like superheroes. The second big moment took place during the second week of May this year with the launch of ‘Fast vs Fast' build around the introduction of de super light F50 adiZero boot. Andy Fackrell: ‘Zidane drives to the stadium in an old racing car and he represents speed without the ball. Messi and Villa are on the pitch and they represent speed on the ball. There's both a dark and a light side in the film also because the lines between what's real and what's not are blurry. This keeps it interesting to watch.' The smart thing about the storytelling-element in the adidas campaign is that it has mileage and it doesn't even have to end after the World Cup.
‘Fast vs fast' is also an introduction of the match-ups we will be seeing on adidas.com/football and Facebook during the World Cup. Based on what happens in real life adidas will ‘match up' players and teams, so if Argentina plays England, you will get ‘Messi The Spark' vs ‘Gerrard The Powerhouse.' Andy Fackrell: ‘For this year's World Cup, we are putting fans in the driving seat through this social media experience. Choosing from 32 players in 32 countries, fans can follow their hero through the tournament winning points and prizes when he does well. But there can only be one winning and that is for the fans to decide.'

Nike and Wieden+Kennedy took another road. Of course there were Nike football-ads launched over the last year, like the spot for the Mercurial Vapor Superfly boot, but they were put in the shade by the ‘Write the Future'-campaign that was introduced in fragments on Facebook, and aired on the night of the Champions League final. Nike amazed with the 3-minute film that was directed by Hollywood director Alejandro G. Iñarritu (21 Grams, Babel). Nike not only involved famous football players but also worked with special guests like tennis legend Roger Federer, basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and even Homer Simpson. The film shows the visualisation of players and the positive and negative impact a single move can have. ‘It was a monster production', says creative director Eric Quennoy. ‘We shot it in the middle of the leagues we were slaves to the tight schedule of the players. Our producers did a glorious job because it was a logistical nightmare. Snow in Madrid meant we had to reschedule everything.' Wieden+Kennedy wrote hundreds of scripts before the final idea, written by W+K Londen's creatives Stuart Harkness en Freddie Powell, came up. Creative director Mark Bernath: ‘Nike pushes us until everybody is sure there's nothing better. We have to bring them to a higher level every single time.'
The commercial has an extra Dutch flavour to it because of the music. Nike and W+K chose the classic track ‘Hocus Pocus' made by the Dutch band Focus. Massive Music updated it to 2010 and made sure the track fits to every single second of the edit.

The commercial marks the first stage of a journey that will ultimately see fans around the world write their own future through experiences that put them at the centre of the action. This month, fans will be able to live like their heroes through an experience on nikefootball.com that generates ripple videos and visuals from their own photos and information, placing them at the centre stage. Footballers can then use this creative to build their own Facebook campaign to get noticed and selected for "The Chance" - an elite Nike Academy football camp in partnership with the Barclays Premier League in England that allows players to get scouted and get noticed at the highest level of the game.

The Nike and adidas campaigns do not look alike and both brands follow their own strategy, but there are some similarities. Both brands use a platform that wasn't really there during the last World Cup: Facebook. It seems that Facebook is the new medium to reach the mass. And although there is a big bought media component in both campaigns (Nike seems to have more budget for media), the main driver behind both campaigns are PR and social media. That's why the winner of the battle between the brands will always be the audience.

Dutch madness

The World Cup means big business, especially in the Netherlands. The Dutch like to call themselves down to earth, but as soon as our national team puts on the orange jerseys all common sense is gone. The famous Dutch saying: ‘Act normal, that's crazy enough' doesn't apply to the period the Dutch team plays. Everything is allowed including redecorating streets and dressing up in orange bringing items like horns, crazy hats and furry animals. No wonder every single retailer, beer brand or even charity introduces his own promo. Some examples of these years' promotions:
1. The Bavaria Dutch dress: a orange dress specially designed for women. Bavaria recognizes that watching football is not only a guys' thing, it's a social event and the ladies want to look astonishing as ever.
2. The Heineken Pletterpet: a hat based on the South African Makaraba, a funny helmet which South Africans wear during football matches. Heineken built in a loud trumpet.
3. Albert Heijn Beesies: Holland's biggest supermarket has a good track record in promotions. This year they introduced Beesies, little worm-like animals in the colours of the national flag and orange.