Platform for change / Understanding the cultural context of a market is key when launching a new product – if you don’t know what the barriers to entry are, how can you overcome them? But identifying a specific cultural insight is one thing, acting on that insight is something else. Here, Adidas’ OOH activation addresses the very issue of body confidence that its inclusive swimwear collection (designed for all women regardless of shape, ability, or religion) partly seeks to address. Every leap of bravery into the liquid billboard is there for all to see – at the beach and broadcast in Dubai’s biggest mall – individual acts of body confidence that together create a compelling message to Adidas’ target market. While the novelty of a ‘swimmable billboard’ coupled with the participation of female athletes ensured media coverage and got the word out about the new swimware range.
Speaking to Contagious, Joao Medeiros, ECD at Havas Middle East, noted: ‘One participant who dived in said: “Not once while I was in the water, did I think about what I looked like, if people were judging me and my body – I was totally and completely out of my head and in the moment.” This sums up what the campaign inspiration was. Freedom.’ Getting famous athletes onboard amps the aspirational nature of the campaign further, seeding the social proof to be brave (and wear Adidas’ modest swimwear while doing so).
Modesty blaze / From a business perspective, it’s clearly worth embracing regional sensibilities about modest fashion, with Muslim spend on apparel and footwear up 4.2% in 2019 to $277bn and projected to grow to $311bn by 2024, according the State of the Global Islamic Economy report from Dinar Standard and Thomson Reuters. But Adidas’ new inclusive range is not just a grab for market share, it’s a natural extension on the brand’s broader Watch Us Move initiative to create more space for women in sport. While the liquid billboard is a small stunt, it underlines the support that Adidas is giving women to take part in sport.
