We over-invested in digital advertising: Adidas Case Study

Hi people,

and a warm HELLO, well, rather cold one from the Swiss mountains, where I’m enjoying the first ski day of the season with my kids. A couple of runs are already into our legs and it’s just beautiful up here.

But I just wanted to take a minute with you to share insights I found regarding the sportswear company Adidas and their statement which says: “we over-invested in digital advertising”.

I mean, what does this mean?

For years, Adidas had the understanding that it was digital advertising driving e-commerce sales and as a consequence, their advertising split was 23% into brand and 73% into performance. Their attribution model was based on the last-click but it did not do any brand tracking. Their focus on efficiency over effectiveness lead to KPI’s on how to reduce cost rather than what was in the best interests of its brands.

I mean, what did they change to address this problem?

Adidas introduced a new campaign framework, with emotional brand driving activity at the center, and with a focus on generating again brand desire, creating desire by connecting with consumers around major campaigns three or four times a year while at the same time running advertising with a rational message.

This brings me to the conclusion that you or your brand, you need to create meaningful experiences that appeal to your customers. Because both brand awareness and performance campaigns, they need to coexist in order to maximize sales.

Well people, I hope you find these insights useful, and I would, as always, love to hear from you. Leave a comment about your marketing challenges, and let’s get the discussion going.

But remember, even in the beautiful Swiss Alps and there’s not the Matterhorn in the back, as long as the Matterhorn stands, everything is going to be alright. Well, cheers people, I need to go and catch up now with my kids. They’re already ahead;-)

Cheers. Talk to you soon again from another great place. Bye.

Greetings from a Swiss mountain guy;-)

Claude Oggier

More marketing questions? Call me at 0041-78-637-4314 and I am happy to help.